My Downfall
by LucretiaDecoy
Summary: The gang are reunited to investigate rumours of a planned uprising in demon world and somehow Botan finds herself spending a lot of time with Hiei with both getting more than they bargained for. Hiei/Botan with some Yusuke/Keiko and Kuwabara/Yukina. (Repost of 2009 fic.)
1. The Reunion

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Reunion**

"Knock, knock!"

Yusuke half-opened one eye, casting it in the direction of the open door. Against the glow of the rising sunlight that was spilling into the room he could see the silhouette of a slender female, one arm in the air, her fist wiggling back and forth as though she was knocking on an invisible door.

"Haven't seen you in a long time, Botan," he said, closing his eye again. "What's up?"

He heard Botan walk into the room, her feet clicking lightly against the wooden floor. She moved around him in a circle, gradually slowing as she went, as though fascinated by her surroundings and gradually becoming distracted by them.

"Botan!" he snapped, opening his eyes.

She jerked to a halt in front of him and grinned sheepishly.

"You came here by yourself?" he asked with a small frown, as the realisation dawned on him that she looked a little harried and was, unusually, on her own.

"Yes," she said, holding up one finger in the air. "I hope I'm not disturbing you, Yusuke…"

Yusuke dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand, standing up and silently deciding that he could afford to miss meditation that morning.

"What's up?" he asked again.

"I like what you've done with this place," she replied, waving an arm around the room. "I'm sure Genkai would be very happy to see her temple being used so appropriately."

Yusuke narrowed his eyes slightly, suspicion taking seed in the back of his mind. Botan had visited the temple several times since Genkai had passed away, and she already knew exactly what he had done with the place: absolutely nothing, as per Genkai's dying wishes. Botan's nonsensical statement, along with her inability to look him directly in the eye, her slightly strained tone and the slight tensing of her shoulders told him that she was there for more than just a friendly visit.

"Botan?" he said slowly, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at her in a way that warned her she needed to come to her point, and quickly.

"How are you, Yusuke?" she asked, meeting his eyes at last, but with a grin that looked almost painful.

"I'm busy, Botan," he frankly replied. "I just came here to check on things, I have to leave soon, I start work in less than an hour. Why are you here?"

"Lord Koenma sent me," she said.

Yusuke managed to keep his groan silent, but was unable to stop one eyebrow from twisting upwards.

"There's been a disturbance in the demon world," she continued. "We think there might be some ex-convicts banding together to plan a rebellion, and we want to be prepared before the next tournament."

"Which is only a few months away," Yusuke finished for her. "I don't work for Koenma any more. And I thought he was keeping his nose out of demon world affairs these days?"

"You're right of course!" Botan hurriedly replied, smiling sweetly up at him. "But the problem is, the rebels gathering in demon world aren't all from demon world."

Yusuke arched his eyebrows expectantly, but Botan hesitated before continuing.

"We think there might be humans involved too," she eventually said.

"So what does Koenma expect me to do about it?" Yusuke asked bluntly.

"Well, he's asked me to gather everyone together here so that we can come up with a plan," Botan replied.

"Everyone?" Yusuke repeated.

"Yes. You know, the old team!"

Botan swung a fist through the air in a gung-ho fashion, still grinning a little too fervently for Yusuke's liking.

"It's too early in the morning for this crap…" he grumbled, stifling a yawn.

"Won't you please at least meet here with the others to hear what Lord Koenma has to say to you?" Botan pleaded.

"Sure, but I can't make it back until later," Yusuke conceded. "After eight tonight."

"Perfect!" Botan said cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "I'll make sure that everybody else comes here for eight o'clock! Don't be late!"

Yusuke forced a smile as Botan waved him a goodbye and hurried back outside. Before she had reached the garden beyond the doorway she had already summoned her oar and leapt up onto it, shortly zipping off upwards and away from the temple. Yusuke slowly walked to the open doorway, squinting up at the sky to watch her fade from visibility. It had been four years since Yusuke had last officially worked for Koenma, and he had not expected to see the pacifier addict again until the next tournament to determine the ruler of demon world, which he was certain would attract Koenma back as an eager spectator. He was almost certain Koenma was scheming something by asking for his help, since King Enma had made it painfully clear that Yusuke was no longer to be a part of the affairs of spirit world.

Though, he thought dryly, if a rebellion was occurring in demon world, whatever Koenma was concerned over was not actually spirit world's affairs. He was unsure what to think, but if nothing else, his curiosity had already allowed him to agree to be a part of it.

* * *

"Knock, knock!"

Kuwabara groaned, lifting his face up and blinking back the vestiges of sleep. He squinted around his surroundings, finding himself alone in his dorm room, his roommate unsurprisingly absent. Apparently he had fallen asleep at his study desk, something he had done more often than he cared to remember lately.

"Oh dear, working hard or hardly working, Kuwabara?"

He grunted at the overly chipper voice at his side, twitching as something peeled off the side of his face. He turned in the direction of the sensation, finding a familiar face grinning at him whilst holding up a piece of paper with only one line of handwriting decorating its surface.

"Botan?" he muttered.

He looked about himself again, confirming that he was definitely in his dorm room before eying her over sceptically.

"Have I missed something?" he asked her.

"I think you missed the point of that book…" Botan replied, reading the single line he had written onto the piece of paper he had then apparently fallen asleep on and had stuck to his face when he awoke.

"Hey!" he moaned, snatching the paper back from her. "What are you doing here? This is the boys' dorm!"

Botan grinned and rocked on her heels but remained infuriatingly silent.

"I have term finals soon, I'm busy," he added, replacing the page she had taken from him to his desk.

"Oh dear, I hope you're not too busy to help an old friend?" she said sweetly, holding her hands by her face and pulling a kitty face.

"Spirit world needs my help?" he asked. "But I don't do that sort of thing any more…"

"Lord Koenma asked me to gather the old team, and he specifically asked for you, Kuwabara!" Botan sang.

"Koenma asked for me?" Kuwabara repeated, pointing at himself and widening his eyes in surprise.

Botan nodded.

"Does he want me to be the new spirit detective?" he asked.

She shook her head and his face fell.

"There's a little something going on, and Lord Koenma just wants to make sure it doesn't turn into a big something," she said cryptically.

"I don't like the sound of this…" he said slowly. "Is Urameshi involved?"

Botan paused, her face unreadable for a moment, before a slightly devious glint passed over her pink eyes.

"Lord Koenma asked me to gather everyone at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock," she slowly replied. "Yukina is making dinner for everyone, she'd be very upset if you couldn't make it…"

Kuwabara grinned like a goof for a moment before hurriedly regaining his composure.

"I'm really busy with my studies, but since it's for Lord Koenma, I suppose I could be there," he replied, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Excellent!" Botan replied. "Don't be late!"

"Okay…"

Kuwabara twisted around in his chair, watching with a curious frown as Botan left his room again, almost walking directly into a male student who was exiting the shared bathroom, clad only in a towel that was tied loosely around his waist.

"Oopsie!" she said to him, grinning and hopping to one side to avoid colliding with him.

"Strange…" Kuwabara muttered to himself.

Still, he reasoned, before Botan had been sent for him, Koenma had probably already summoned Yusuke, and things were always interesting when Yusuke was around. He was aware that the next tournament to determine the new ruler of the demon realm was rapidly approaching, and he had been trying to find a way to attend it, and perhaps this would be it: he could insist that he would only help Koenma in return for a ticket to the tournament.

* * *

"Knock, knock!"

"Goodness, Botan!"

Kurama blinked repeatedly in disbelief at the girl knocking on the desk in front of him and taking a seat next to him in the lecture theatre. Once he was certain that he was not imagining things, he glanced about himself, seeing other students slowly filing into the seats around them and the professor entering by the podium, briefcase in hand.

"Botan, what are you doing here?" he whispered, turning to her with a frown.

"Lord Koenma sent me!" she cheerfully replied.

"Lord Ko…"

Kurama's voice trailed off as he caught several passing students eying him curiously from the row behind where he sat.

"Lord Koenma?" he repeated, lowering his voice and leaning closer to her. "What does he want with me?"

"He's asked me to–"

"Botan please, lower your voice!"

"Oopsie!"

Botan clapped her fingers over her mouth and glanced about nervously.

"I'm sorry Kurama!" she hissed as her fingers slid from her lips.

"That's alright, but please tell me quickly, this class is about to start, and we can't talk once the lecture begins," Kurama replied.

Botan nodded her understanding.

"Lord Koenma wants us all to meet at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock, it's very important that you come," she continued, being mindful to keep her voice to a whisper.

"I have classes until six," Kurama whispered back. "What is all this about?"

"There's a small problem – a rebellion – he wants to discuss with the old team."

Kurama nodded, glancing down at the front of the hall, seeing that the professor was removing his coat, apparently only moments away from calling the room to attention.

"I'll be there," he whispered to Botan.

"Thanks Kurama!" she said brightly. "I knew that I could count on you!"

Kurama cringed as she blurted out her words in a raised voice again, attracting more attention in their direction. He heard a few people mutter about the curiosity of a girl calling Shuichi by an unusual name, some offering the suggestion that he was some sort of perverse womaniser who hid behind many guises.

"Goodbye Botan," he said carefully.

She tilted her head at him curiously, but he merely nodded his head in the direction of the doors at the back of the room.

"If you leave now, you will go unnoticed," he explained.

"Excellent idea!" she agreed, rising to her feet. "You always were the smart one, Kurama!"

Kurama opened his mouth to correct her use of his name, but as she was starting to leave he decided not to bother, lest he risk drawing yet more unwanted attention to himself. Instead he watched on silently as she moved against the current of bodies entering the hall, spouting apologies as she inadvertently bumped into a few shoulders as she went. Once she was out of sight he let out a small sigh of relief and returned his attention to the front of the room, silently wondering what could possibly have happened to cause Lord Koenma to call together his former team of spirit detectives.

* * *

"Botan, there you are!" Koenma said, partly in greeting and partly in relief as his faithful assistant entered his office.

She approached his desk with a smile and calmer aura about her than she had left with, which instantly put him at ease: obviously she had successfully completed the task he had set her.

"I've arranged for everyone to meet at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock, Sir," she said, bowing her head in greeting as she stopped in front of his desk.

"Excellent work, Botan!" he said. "To be honest, I was a little worried. I thought you might not be able to find everyone or get them all to agree. I must say, you've come back remarkably quickly!"

Botan laughed good-naturedly and waved a hand dismissively in the air.

"It wasn't hard to find the old team," she assured him. "And they were all as helpful as they always have been."

"…Really?" Koenma echoed, unable to hide the confusion in his tone.

"Oh yes, Lord Koenma!" Botan insisted. "They were all a little confused that you had called for them, but nobody refused! In fact, I think they're all quite happy to have a chance to work together again!"

"…You're sure about that?"

"Absolutely, Sir!"

Koenma nodded slowly, though he was less than convinced. Botan had completed her task in an unreasonably short amount of time: he did not like to distrust her, but it did seem distinctly odd that she could have located the entire team and managed to convince each of them to assist spirit world in what was effectively an undercover assignment to spy on demon world, in defiance of the agreement spirit world and demon world had made three years prior, after Enki had been crowned ultimate ruler of the demon realm.

"…You found everyone so quickly…" he muttered, more thinking the point out aloud than querying Botan on the matter.

"But of course, Sir!" she replied regardless. "I have visited everyone a few times since Yusuke stopped working for us, just social calls, you know, so it was easy enough to find them all again. Yusuke is working as a martial arts teacher now, he's always at his dojo, or Genkai's temple, or else in the city visiting Keiko and Kuwabara. Kuwabara is at the University of Tokyo, still studying hard, and Kurama is at Kyoto University, so they were both easy to find in such big, obvious places!"

Koenma nodded slowly, waiting for Botan to continue. When she merely smiled at him, looking decidedly satisfied with her words, he realised that, as he had feared as much as suspected, she had mistaken his instructions to her. He cleared his throat before sitting back in his large, comfortable chair to increase the distance between them. He silently wondered if it was worth summoning George to stand by his side, as he doubted Botan was going to like what he was about to say to her: but he decided against it, hoping that she would accept that the fault lay on her side for not heeding his orders as she ought to have.

"So…" he began slowly. "You've found Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama, and they've all agreed to meet with us at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock?"

"That's right, Sir!" Botan replied, her tone as radiant and chipper as ever.

"And, um, you didn't have any trouble finding or convincing Hiei either?"

Botan's face instantly dropped as Koenma mentioned Hiei's name. She touched a finger to one corner of her mouth and lowered her eyes, looking thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head and meeting his eyes again.

"You didn't ask me to summon Hiei too," she tried.

"Well, I asked you to summon the old team," Koenma carefully replied. "When I said "the old team", I meant Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei. I thought you understood that."

"Oh, I see…"

Botan looked down at the ground again and Koenma began to feel a pang of guilt, as he was certain that she was probably even more concerned than she appeared to be.

"I don't think finding Hiei will be so easy," he continued, deciding to gloss over their misunderstanding as best he could. "But it's especially important that we have his assistance with this. He is, after all, our most trusted insider, since he resides in the heart of demon world."

Koenma saw a slight flicker of emotion pass over Botan's features as he described Hiei as their "most trusted insider", but it was fleeting and she did not mention her feelings and so he chose to ignore it too.

"The last I heard, Hiei was still working the border patrol of demon world," he added. "You won't have to search demon world for him, I suggest passing into the demon realm from the human realm, that should get his attention if he is still working there."

Botan looked up and opened her mouth, but said nothing. Koenma stared back at her blankly, silently sensing that he already knew what she had been about to ask regardless of her decision to remain silent: what if Hiei no longer worked the patrol and she was found by someone else?

"Change your clothes to make yourself look like a regular person from the living world," he suggested. "We already know the areas where people sometimes accidentally cross over into demon world, head to one of those and take it from there. But if everyone else is meeting tonight, you'll probably need to move quite quickly."

Botan nodded and smiled, though Koenma thought that the gesture looked a little false and forced.

"No problem Sir!" she said. "You can count on me!"

She turned and left his office at a brisk pace, and as soon as she was comfortably out of earshot, Koenma allowed himself to quietly mutter a wish of good luck after her. Meanwhile, Botan hurriedly made her way through the frenetic hordes of ogres and ferry girls that habitually cluttered the hallways of the temple, holding her head up and politely smiling and bowing to anyone who looked in her direction as she passed. But despite her outward appearance of cheerful confidence, she was growing increasingly worried: she had only ever visited demon world once, and that had been securely flanked with Lord Koenma at one side and George Saotome at the other, to witness the tournament for leadership that Yusuke had arranged three years earlier. She had never expected to ever visit the demon realm again except when the next tournament came around, and even then only as a spectator to the fights, and again with the security of the Lord of the Underworld and his closest aide accompanying her.

But, Botan thought darkly as she reached the gates of the temple and summoned her oar half-heartedly, as worried as she was about entering demon world alone, she was far more concerned about the task that faced her once she got there: Hiei was notoriously stubborn and unhelpful, she had no idea how to even begin trying to convince him to leave his precious home to help out spirit world with a mission that would basically require him to spy on his own comrades and potentially betray them.

Botan sighed as she rose through the air towards the portal between the spirit world and the living world. When she had left Kurama it had been a little after nine in the morning, but she knew that by the time she found her way to demon world it would probably be past ten, leaving her ten hours to find Hiei and convince him to come to the living world with her to meet with the others. She doubted that she could even lie to him about why he was needed: she had always been hopeless at deception of any kind, and he was certain to ask her why she had been sent for him.

As she passed back into the living world, Botan found her smile again as she remembered that Yusuke had once said that Hiei always came to their assistance when they needed him the most. He certainly seemed like a good person, she thought, and although he might not like the idea of doing what she had to ask of him, he would surely agree to help. He would probably pretend to be offended or uncaring, but Botan believed that he would agree because, deep down, he had a good heart and he would do anything for his old friends.

* * *

"You did what?" Yusuke yelped.

"I sent Botan to demon world to fetch Hiei, and she's not back yet," Koenma repeated.

Yusuke glared at him in wide-eyed disbelief.

"Nothing's changed, then?" he scoffed. "Your still running spirit world the same way you were when I worked for you."

Koenma frowned curiously, the gesture looking decidedly delicate on the face of his teenaged form, which he had adopted to attend the meeting at Genkai's temple that evening.

"You've got your head so far up your ass, you're left crawling about the place looking for the damn light-switch!" Yusuke snapped.

"Hey!" Koenma wailed defensively. "I don't see what the problem is!"

"You don't see anything but the inside of your own rectum!" Yusuke retaliated, waving a fist at him.

"That was pretty dumb sending Botan to demon world," Kuwabara muttered.

"You see!" Yusuke cried. "Even an idiot like Kuwabara can see that your plan was stupid!"

"Damn you, Urameshi!" Kuwabara growled.

"There are still patrols on the borders of demon world," Koenma insisted. "Somebody will have found her and picked her up."

"And scrambled her brains and dumped her back here somewhere!" Yusuke added.

"Hopefully Hiei will recognise her and return her to an appropriate location," Kurama offered. "And if he is not the one to find her, hopefully whoever does will merely mistake her for a regular human who has accidentally crossed over, and they will send her back. As soon as she is safely returned, I shall go to demon world myself and talk with Hiei."

"First of all Kurama, Botan's been gone all day!" Yusuke argued. "Second of all, she's got a big mouth, how do we know she won't say something stupid and get herself into trouble? If somebody had found her and they had decided to return her in one piece, she would have been back by now! And third, careful what you suggest: you going to demon world to look for Hiei sounds like a dangerously sensible plan, since you know you're way around, nobody would suspect you of anything, and you know how to talk to Hiei better than any of us!"

Yusuke's voice became increasingly soaked with sarcasm as he spoke, his last remark directed more at Koenma than Kurama.

"Is Botan in trouble?"

Koenma and Yusuke turned from each other, both looking across the room at the door, which had been slid open without anyone noticing, revealing a very worried looking Yukina.

"Don't worry about Botan, Yukina!" Kuwabara said to her. "If she gets into any sort of danger, I know a brave guy who will come to her rescue!"

"That's right, Kazuma!" Yukina said, smiling sweetly. "I'm sure Mister Hiei will rescue Botan and take good care of her."

Kuwabara's face dropped and a derogatory remark about a vertically challenged fire demon left his lips, his words almost indiscernible to everyone in the room, though apparently only too clear to Yukina, who looked a little upset.

"You're wrong," she said, her voice still gentle, though a little firmer than usual. "Mister Hiei is helping me look for my brother, he would never desert somebody in need, he is a good person!"

"Yeah, and if Hiei doesn't find Botan soon, maybe we could send somebody else in there," Yusuke said sardonically. "How about Keiko? But let's be sure to tell her all the details about what's going on, so that if she does get kidnapped by one of the bad guys, they can torture all the information out of her and really screw us over!"

Koenma sighed and nodded.

"Alright Yusuke, I made a mistake," he admitted. "But Botan is a lot more capable than you're giving her credit for. Let's just give her a little longer to come back."

"We'll wait another hour," Kurama suggested. "If she hasn't returned by then, I will go to demon world and find her myself."

Koenma and Yusuke exchanged sceptical looks, but both eventually agreed to comply with Kurama's suggestion, even though neither of them felt able to wait a full hour before acting one way or the other.

* * *

Botan could not really remember how she had gotten to where she was, but she had decided that she must have suffered the same sense of disorientation a human felt when accidentally passing into the demon realm, as she still felt a little light-headed and groggy as she neared what she assumed was the destination of the odd vehicle she was aboard.

Although, she thought to herself, the speed and juddering motion of travelling over a rocky terrain on what was effectively a giant metal bug was probably about enough to make anyone feel disoriented and mildly nauseous.

There were only two others on the transport with her, both large, bulky demons that looked like mutated ogres. She was unharmed and they had not so much as looked at her since she had awoken, and so she felt quite safe with them. Obviously they had found her when she had crossed the border they were patrolling and they must have taken her onto their transport with a degree of care as she had awoken to find herself rested in a relatively comfortable corner of the passenger area. But although she was confident that they meant her no harm, she was growing increasingly concerned about the dark, jagged building looming ahead of them that they seemed to be heading towards.

Botan shuffled around a little, sitting up onto her knees, the wind catching in her hair as she lifted her head above the wall at her side that had been sheltering her from its effects. The air was hot and sticky, and carried with it a bitter smell that lingered as a sickening taste in the back of her throat. The sky was blood-red and the landscape was largely barren and dull, making the foreboding building ahead of them seem all the more prominent by comparison. And as they rushed towards that building, Botan again found herself wishing that she had not come to demon world on her own, if for no other reason than the longing to have somebody to reassure her that her situation was not as bad as it seemed to be.

Before long, she felt herself lurching forwards as the vehicle began to slow down, eventually coming to a halt by the foot of the towering fortress. A slight error in judgement found Botan on her feet before the vehicle had come to a complete halt, and despite its final jolt before coming to a complete stop having no effect on the two demons standing ahead of her, Botan herself stumbled forward, one leg buckling beneath her clumsily, leaving her in a crumpled, half-standing position by the very front of the passenger area, her head hanging over a significant drop to the ground below. She whimpered as she realised her predicament, but she did not have long to dwell on it as two hands suddenly seized her from behind, hoisting her upwards, an instinctive scream of surprise leaving her as she rose through the air.

"Oh…" she whimpered as she found herself under the arm of one of the demons.

He began hopping down the side of the vehicle, each footfall jarring through her body and making her groan and squeak in complaint. Once he had reached the ground he placed her down a little too roughly for her own liking, though she suspected from the size of him and the look on his face that he had been restraining himself greatly and he had tried to be as gentle with her as he could.

"Um, thank you?" she said, before giggling nervously and scratching at the back of her head.

"This way," he said flatly, holding out a hand to one side.

Botan turned in the direction he indicated and started to move that way, only to stumble to a halt as she spotted a familiar figure walking towards the same entrance the demon had directed her to. He seemed oblivious to her presence, walking at an unhurried pace but with a distinct sense of purpose. He looked a little worse for wear, as though he had just endured a trying battle, his upper body bared and marked with dirt and dried smears of blood. One arm was swinging at his side as he moved, but the other was hanging downwards under the weight of the sword he was carrying, which was stained with blood. As Botan watched him he tilted the sword up slightly and eyed it over, before lifting it to his mouth and running his tongue along the length of the blade, cleaning the blood from the metal.

"Oh, you shouldn't do that, Hiei!" Botan called over to him. "It's very dangerous, you might cut your tongue! And it's very unhygienic, you could catch something licking up someone else's blood!"

Hiei stopped abruptly at the sound of his name, his head snapping around and his intense crimson eyes fixing onto her. He watched her unblinkingly until she finished speaking, whereupon he spat over his shoulder and then turned fully towards her.

"Oh you shouldn't spit either," she added.

She saw his eyes thin slightly before he started to march towards her, quickly reaching her with long strides.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked.

Boten opened her mouth to answer him, stopping short as he brought his sword up, pointing the tip at her nose. She then noticed that he was not actually addressing her, but rather the demon at her side.

"We found it lying by the woods," the demon told Hiei.

"Why did you take it here?" Hiei responded. "Why didn't you just wipe its memories and put it back where you found it?"

"Um, excuse me?" Botan said, raising a hand and smiling nervously.

"I lack the ability to wipe memories, that's usually your job," the demon said, as both he and Hiei continued to ignore Botan.

"You've wasted your time and mine," Hiei growled at him.

"Oh no that's okay!" Botan said cheerfully. "I came here to see you anyway Hiei!"

Hiei finally moved his eyes to her, staring at her with a look that she was sure could have killed a weaker spirit than hers.

"I've never seen this thing before," he said smoothly, turning his attention back to the demon. "I don't know what it's talking about, it must be delirious from passing into our world. Since you're incapable of doing you're duty, I'll take care of this myself."

Botan started to make another calming remark in the hope of diffusing the situation, but her voice dissolved into a cry of alarm as something suddenly clamped around her upper arm and yanked her forcefully around. She stumbled awkwardly until she found her balance again, then realising that Hiei had grabbed her and was dragging her away from the other demons. Despite his legs being shorter than hers she struggled to keep pace with him, even though he was only walking. He was taking almost unnaturally long strides, and the grip he had on her arm was painful and unrelenting, leaving her with no other choice but to hurry along with him.

"H-Hiei," she began once she had almost found a pace that matched his. "You're hurting me."

He did not respond to her words, though she was certain that he must have heard them. He pulled her onwards several steps more after she had spoken before suddenly yanking back on her arm to bring her to an abrupt halt at his side.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, rounding on her.

Botan paused before answering him, carefully noting that he was still squeezing her arm in one fist, his other still just as firmly clenched around the hilt of his bloody katana. He looked particularly displeased and, with his current dishevelled appearance, a little deranged: but Botan knew that appearances could be deceptive and that although he looked quite vicious and dangerous, he was still Hiei, and he would never seriously hurt her.

"Lord Koenma sent me," she began, stopping herself as Hiei's eyes widened and he nervously glanced about himself.

Once he had ascertained that they were definitely alone and that nobody had heard her speak the name of the lord of the underworld he finally released her arm and both his brief look of concern and his anger faded from his features, leaving a distinctly bland expression on his face.

"Hn, figures," he said quietly.

To Botan's relief, he then slid his sword back into its sheath at his hip.

"It's very important, Hiei," she said carefully. "Everyone is meeting at Genkai's temple tonight, and Lo–"

Botan quickly clapped a hand over her mouth to stop her boss's name slipping out of it again.

"Didn't that old lady die?" Hiei asked, eying her sceptically.

"Yes, she did," Botan said sadly, lowering her head a little. "But that was the chosen meeting place. Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama will all be there."

"I couldn't care any less about any silly meeting in the human world," he said. "Coming here was a very stupid thing for you to do. And the one who sent you is even more idiotic for giving you the order."

"But Hiei," she said pleadingly. "We need your help!"

"I don't owe you people anything. I'm going to take you to the nearest portal, and once you have passed through, don't ever let me see you here again, understand?"

Botan carefully searched Hiei's face for any sign that he was putting on an act, any indication that he would, as Yusuke had said, act indifferent but ultimately fight in their corner: but his eyes remained as cold and unfeeling as ever as he stared blankly back at her.

"Hiei…" she said softly, her hopes deflating as his expression and stance remained unchanged.

She waited a few seconds more, giving him one last chance to change his mind or say something mildly redeeming. When neither happened she sighed, puffing out her cheeks and nodded in defeat.

"Alright," she agreed. "It would be super if you could help me find the way out of here."

"Follow me," he flatly replied.

Botan once more had to skip along at a pace somewhere between a brisk walk and jogging as Hiei took off again. It seemed like he did everything fast and intensely, including walking, she mused as she followed after him. The combination of their speed and Hiei's intimate knowledge of the border area soon brought them to a minor breach between demon world and the living world. As they neared it Hiei stopped and took a large step to the side, watching Botan as she stepped past him towards the portal.

"Are you absolutely sure that you don't want to come with me?" she asked suddenly, turning to him with an optimistic grin.

"I've never been more sure about anything in my entire life," he frankly replied. "Now get out of my sight."

Botan turned towards the portal and took one more step towards it before pausing again as a thought occurred to her. She turned her head towards Hiei again, noticing for the first time that there were two sparkling gemstones hanging around his neck, each on a separate chain. They were identical in appearance, and mesmerising in their beauty: and they looked entirely out of place around the neck of an aggressive little fire demon who had previously expressed a dislike for accessorising.

"Are those hiruiseki?" she asked, pointing at the objects that had caught her attention.

"Hn," he grunted, grabbing a fist around both stones to hide them from her view.

"Oh that's right!" Botan said with a smile. "Yukina gave you the hiruiseki she got from her mother and she asked you to find her brother for her."

"That's not your concern," Hiei quietly replied.

"It's been a long time, Hiei. Are you ever going to tell her that you are her brother?"

"Maybe you didn't hear me: I said that is not your concern!"

Botan nodded.

"I understand," she said gently. "If you lose the highs at least you're spared the lows."

Botan sighed and smiled amiably at Hiei, waving a hand.

"If you change your mind, you know where to find us!" she said brightly, before stepping through the portal.

Hiei hesitated for several moments after she had disappeared before slowly opening his fist to once more uncover the hiruiseki hanging around his neck. One was, of course, Yukina's, and the other was his own. Since receiving both he had worn them faithfully, though typically they were concealed beneath his clothing. In the last few years he had worn them openly on several occasions around demon world, and anyone who had seen them had assumed that he was either rich enough to buy them or cunning enough to steal them, and nobody had ever questioned their presence. In demon world, only Mukuro and Hiei knew why he wore the two gems, but in the living world several others knew of his secret, including that loud-mouthed ferry girl.

And what the hell had she meant when she had said "if you lose the highs at least you're spared the lows"? She had said it in such a flippant manner, though the words carried far more weight than her light-hearted tone had suggested.

"Damn it," Hiei muttered, moving away from the portal in a flash of motion.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan returns to Genkai's temple and the others start planning their next course of action: but their plans are soon interrupted when Hiei arrives in a rather unusual fashion. **Chapter 2: The Jagan.**


	2. The Jagan

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Botan arranged a meeting for the old spirit detective team, but when she went to demon world to find Hiei he refused to go with her.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The Jagan**

"Knock, knock!"

Botan pretended to knock by the open door before stepping into the room the others had gathered in. She smiled at them cheerfully in greeting, but her expression slowly shifted as she realised that they were all staring at her with looks that ranged from fearful to shocked.

"Everybody alright?" she asked tentatively.

"Botan!" Koenma blurted out.

"Yes," she responded. "I'm sorry Lord Koenma Sir, but Hiei refused to come back here with me."

Koenma stared back at her with wide eyes but said nothing.

"I tried my very best!" she added, pulling a kitty face and pawing at the air coyly.

"I can't believe you made it back here alive!" Yusuke said suddenly.

Botan turned to him, tilting her head to one side curiously.

"I told you we could trust Mister Hiei to take good care of Botan!" Yukina protested.

"I wouldn't trust that little pest as far as I could throw him," Kuwabara muttered. "Hey wait, that analogy doesn't really work for a small-fry like Hiei, because I could probably throw him clear through three dimensions…"

"Botan, I'm really sorry," Koenma said, stepping forwards from the others. "I shouldn't have sent you to demon world, it would have made a lot more sense to send Kurama or Yusuke."

"Sensible planning never was one your greatest strengths," Yusuke muttered behind him.

"Well it was a little scary being there all on my own!" Botan laughed. "But I found Hiei, and although he helped me get back here, he refused to help us."

Koenma sighed.

"That's just not good enough, we really need his help on this one," he said. "I expected him to refuse at first, but hopefully we can change his mind."

"Here goes," Yusuke said. "Get a load of this guys: he's about to send Botan back to demon world."

Koenma turned to Yusuke but before they could commence an argument, Kurama stepped forwards, holding up a hand to halt their words.

"I suggest we proceed with our plans without Hiei," he said calmly. "If we find that his assistance will be essential, I will talk with him at a later date. For now I think it would be prudent to discuss our plans and move forwards as though we will not have Hiei's aid."

"Well, I…" Koenma began, trailing off as he caught Yusuke glaring at him and noticed that Kuwabara was still muttering to himself, trying to find an appropriate comparative joke for how little he trusted Hiei. "Okay, that sounds good," he resigned.

"So then out with it: why did you bring us here?" Yusuke responded.

"We have reason to believe some former criminals in demon world are harbouring humans who have accidentally passed into their world and they are planning to stage some sort of ransom of their release when the preliminaries for the next demon world tournament begin," Koenma replied. "And that is why it was imperative we got Hiei involved, since he is supposedly responsible for returning all humans who cross over. Apparently he hasn't been doing his job."

"How do we know Hiei isn't the one taking hostages?" Kuwabara asked.

"We don't," Koenma replied.

"Taking humans hostage to use them as ransom is beneath Hiei," Kurama interjected.

"Pfft, oh yeah?" Yusuke snorted. "It wasn't beneath him when I first met him. He took Keiko hostage to get the three spirit world artefacts. He even tried to turn her into a demon, remember?"

"That was a long time ago, and Hiei has never given us a reason to distrust him since that time," Kurama replied.

"I guess not, but we don't know what he's been up to lately," Yusuke said. "He never comes to any of our reunions. He does tend to turn up just when we need him, but this time it looks like we need him right at the start, and he's not here!"

"We can manage without him," Kuwabara said. "He hates helping us anyway, and obviously none of us trust him."

"Okay, we need to consider how we start looking at this," Koenma said, hoping to bring the discussion back to the matter at hand. "Botan, Yukina, for your own safety, I need to ask you both to leave us alone for this next part."

Botan arched her eyebrows questioningly at her boss but he merely ushered her towards the door.

"I'd rather keep this one on a need-to-know basis," he told her as she stumbled back out of the room. "If you know too much, you could be in danger of being kidnapped by somebody who wants to read your mind. It's safer for us all if you don't know too much about this."

"But Lord Koenma, I can–" Botan began, stopping short as Koenma sharply slid the door shut between them. "Help…" she added quietly.

Botan sighed and pouted dejectedly, but quickly recovered her cheery disposition as she caught sight of Yukina at her side, watching her worriedly.

"Come along Yukina, let's go outside and watch the sunset," she said with a smile.

Yukina smiled back at her and nodded, following her through the temple towards the back door. As they walked, Botan was glad that Yukina remained two steps behind her, as she could not stop herself from smirking as she considered the irony of Hiei and Yukina being siblings: she could not think of two people more different in character and even in their powers. She started to wonder why Hiei would not tell Yukina that he was the brother she was looking for, but Botan then remembered that the last time she had spent any amount of time on such thoughts, Hiei had appeared in her mind, using his powers of telepathy to issues death threats to her should she accidentally reveal his secret to Yukina. So she shook the thoughts from her mind, instead allowing her thoughts to linger on her disappointment that Koenma was hiding part of the mission briefing from her.

* * *

Botan slept restlessly that night. After watching the sunset with Yukina, she had found Koenma, Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara still deep in conversation and not wishing to be disturbed, so she and Yukina had made up some beds for them all and found a room for themselves for the night. They had found two bedrooms nearby where the others were having their meeting and made up two beds in each, deciding to leave it up to the boys to fight out who shared with who. But Botan and Yukina had only been able to find two more bedrooms, and both were on the upper floor: one had been Genkai's room, which they had agreed they would leave undisturbed, and the other, the room they chose for themselves, was a very small room that looked like it might have once been a part of the attic. Yukina had fallen asleep quite quickly, but Botan had laid awake for some time, mainly because every time she had started to relax she had heard a sudden outburst from Yusuke, Kuwabara or Koenma from downstairs, their voices too far away to be clearly heard as anything other than a muffled cry, yet every time they did shout out Botan was instantly wide awake.

Botan could not even remember how or when she had eventually fallen asleep, remembering a particularly heated exchange reaching her ears and leaving her especially worried and then suddenly finding herself lifting out of a sleep, a sense of anxiety cutting into her thoughts and rousing her. With a groan of complaint and exhaustion she wriggled onto her back and opened her eyes, looking up at the ceiling above her. It was still dark but she could no longer hear voices anywhere else in the building. She waited for several seconds, expecting to hear a sudden indecipherable curse from Yusuke or Kuwabara at any moment, but the silence continued.

She turned her head towards the bed across the room from her, where Yukina was still sleeping so peacefully that it made her jealous to watch. The moon must have come out, Botan mused, as a pale blue square of light had appeared over Yukina and the wall behind her. The room had a sloping wall at one side – the side Botan was sleeping on – and a large window on the sloping section that looked up to the stars outside. There had been no blind or curtain to cover the window with, but since Genkai's temple was in such a remote location, they did not have the problem of streetlights shining in at them, and so they had not bothered covering it. The light now illuminating Yukina made her look all the more peaceful and relaxed and made Botan all the more envious of her contentment.

"This is silly…" she muttered to herself, turning towards Yukina and snuggling into her bedding in an attempt to find a position that was as comfortable as Yukina's appeared to be.

Botan began to blink heavily, telling herself that everyone else had gone to sleep and she had no reason to stay awake, and that doing so would only make her feel terrible the next morning. She finally closed her eyes but before she could drift easily into the sleep she had been sure was finally within her grasp her eyes snapped open again as a light tapping sound resounded somewhere above her head. She watched Yukina, but still the little ice demon slept peacefully with a blissful little smile on her face, apparently oblivious to Botan's pains and the noise. Botan tried to tell herself that it had probably just been a bat or some kind of nocturnal animal, but something felt distinctly amiss; and as she watched Yukina, she saw something that made her entire being freeze stiff where she lay.

The square of light in the room slowly changed shape as a shadow moved across it. Botan watched, holding her breath and not even daring to blink, as the shadow slid across the lower part of the window before coming to a stop near the middle. The shadow was almost shapeless, but as it came to rest, Botan noticed that it came to a point at the top, somewhere on the wall behind where Yukina lay. Before the thought could fully form in her mind, Botan sat up abruptly and twisted her head up and to the side to look out the window, feeling only vaguely surprised to see the barely visible demon looking back down at her from his position perched on the roof by the window.

"Hiei?" she said aloud, despite already knowing that he would not be able to hear her through the closed window.

Even though he was cast in shadow Botan clearly saw his face twitch and twist angrily, and a moan from her side alerted her to his concerns: she turned abruptly to Yukina, who was suddenly frowning and wriggling a little in her bed. She moaned out something unintelligible and rolled over, turning her back to Botan and the window, and then settled back into her deep slumber. Botan sighed silently in relief before turning back to the window, where Hiei was still glaring down at her.

"Sorry!" she whispered, mouthing the word clearly so that he would understand.

He bared his teeth at her, an action all too clear as the moonlight glinted off of his teeth. He then pointed at Botan, made a yapping gesture with his hand, pointed at Yukina and then pointed at himself, his sword and then Botan again.

"What?" she echoed, frowning up at him in confusion.

"Mmb-Botan?" Yukina muttered.

"Oopsie!" Botan yelped, clapping a hand over her mouth and turning to Yukina in alarm.

Yukina was sitting up, rubbing lazily at her eyes, and as she watched her, Botan saw Hiei's silhouette drop out of sight.

"Botan?" Yukina said, regarding her through half-open eyes that were still hazed with sleep. "Did you say something?"

"Me?" Botan echoed. "Oh goodness, was I talking in my sleep again? I'm so sorry Yukina, it's a terrible habit!"

"What were you dreaming about?" Yukina asked her.

"Um…"

Looking into Yukina's open and innocent face, Botan found herself completely unable to lie to the girl. She silently prayed there and then that Yukina would never ask her outright if she knew anything about the brother she was looking for.

"Were you dreaming about the demon realm?" Yukina asked.

"Yes!" Botan quickly replied.

Botan had been dreaming about something during the brief time she had actually been asleep, but she could not remember anything about the dream upon waking, so she felt able to tell this half-lie at least.

"Don't worry about it now Botan," Yukina said, smiling gently at her.

"Yes, you're right!" Botan replied. "You go back to sleep now. And again, I am so sorry that I woke you with my silly rambling!"

"You should go back to sleep too," Yukina said, lying down again.

"Yes, yes I will. I haven't been sleeping very well, but I'm going to try to get some sleep now."

"Goodnight Botan."

"Yes goodnight Yukina. Again! And hopefully for the last time, this time! Hopefully I won't be rambling on in my sleep any more and keeping you awake!"

Botan's face dropped as she heard a vindictive voice suddenly speaking firmly and a little too loudly inside her head, telling her: "your rambling is keeping us all awake, just shut-up and go to sleep". Botan mechanically turned her head towards the window again, but Hiei was no longer there. In her moment of panic she had almost forgotten that he could reach people through telepathy, and she then began wondering how long he had been "listening in" on her conversations with Yukina, not just that night but any other time they had been alone together.

"Sorry!" she whispered, lying down again.

"It's okay Botan," Yukina sleepily replied, her voice slightly muffled by her pillow.

Botan opened her mouth to correct Yukina but then thought better of it. She was beginning to suspect that Hiei's earlier mime act had implied that he would turn her into another notch on his cutlass if she told Yukina that he was there, so she decided to remain silent about her discovery. Instead she lay down again and shuffled about in an attempt to find a comfortable sleeping position. She failed at her task, eventually settling for a tolerable one, her mind still too occupied to let her sleep.

She smiled to herself as she realised that Hiei was in the living world and at Genkai's no less: apparently he was going to help them, but as Yusuke had suggested, he was making a late entrance. Good old Hiei!

"Shut-up and go to sleep!"

Botan's entire body jerked in alarm as Hiei's voice once more yelled impatiently around the inside of her head, louder and clearer than any of her own thoughts. She angrily righted her position again, pouting and hunching her shoulders as she thought about how cruel it was of him to invade her thoughts without her permission and to even have the audacity to complain about them, especially when they had been good thoughts about him.

"That's no way to treat a lady, Hiei," she muttered into her pillow.

Botan tried to push all thoughts about Hiei and the others from her mind to stop Hiei from interrupting her thoughts again, closing her eyes and trying to relax so that she could get some more sleep. But even as she lay with her eyes closed in a reasonably comfortable position, Botan knew that she was not going to get much more sleep that night, no matter how hard she tried.

* * *

Botan opened her mouth and yawned openly, loudly and shamelessly.

"Are we boring you, Botan?" Kuwabara sneered at her.

Botan turned to him, quirking an eyebrow in amusement at his remark.

"No…" she said slowly. "Are we boring you?"

"No!" Kuwabara hurriedly replied, his face slowly turning pink. "I'm never bored when I'm with my darling Yukina!"

"Indeed…"

Botan cleared her throat and rocked on her heels before looking about herself in a slow and deliberate action.

"Did you finish that post-breakfast meeting with Yusuke and Kurama?" she asked, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at Kuwabara suspiciously.

"No, it just started when we left," he said, looking at her as though she was the one talking nonsense.

"I see," Botan said, nodding slowly. "The important meeting Yusuke called, the meeting he told Yukina and me that we could not be a part of, the meeting between Yusuke, Kurama and you is going on right now?"

"Yes," Kuwabara replied. "And your point is?"

"Shouldn't you be at the meeting?"

Botan arched her eyebrows at Kuwabara expectantly, but he merely narrowed his eyes at her and jerked his head in Yukina's direction. Botan glanced at Yukina on his cue, finding her attempting to coax a squirrel out of a nearby tree.

"I can't let you take Yukina out into the woods all alone," Kuwabara whispered to Botan. "Something might happen, I need to protect her."

"And you don't think that I am capable of protecting her?" Botan asked.

Kuwabara faltered, turning slightly pinker, his mouth working through several silent words.

"I'm not as defenceless as you think I am, Kuwabara!" Botan reminded him. "I have my oar to escape danger, and I may not have a fantastic spirit sword like you do, but I do have this!"

With a flick of her wrist Botan summoned her trusty baseball bat, smirking darkly at Kuwabara as she wiggled it in the air.

"Could you fight off a demon with that?" he asked sceptically.

"One well-placed blow would buy us enough time to escape on my oar," she replied.

"Maybe against a weak demon, but what about a big scary one?"

"We're hardly likely to find any big scary demons out here, Kuwabara. Not any more, anyway."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes."

Kuwabara and Botan leaned closer to each other, each glaring at the other in a way that suggested they did not want each other to be there.

"Kazuma, Botan, look!" Yukina said, interrupting their war of wills. "There's something up in this tree!"

Kuwabara hurried over to look up the tree and Botan dismissed her bat with a wave of her hand before joining them.

"Maybe it's another squirrel, Yukina," Kuwabara suggested.

"Don't be silly!" Botan scoffed. "It's far too big to be a squirrel!"

"Maybe it's the mother!" Kuwabara argued.

Botan rolled her eyes but resisted the urge to remind Kuwabara that squirrels were small creatures, and the shapeless shadow above them was far bigger than any squirrel.

"Maybe it's a little kitty!" Kuwabara said.

"Did you eat an extra bowl of stupid this morning?" Botan muttered. "That's no cat!"

Apparently though, Kuwabara did not hear her.

"Here kitty, kitty!" he called up into the tree. "Come on kitty! Kitty, kitty!"

The branches above them rustled a little as the shadow shifted slightly.

"Come on kitty!" Kuwabara called.

"It's not a cat, Kazuma," Yukina said quietly.

A branch groaned, creaked and finally snapped above their heads.

"Then what is it, my love?" Kuwabara asked her.

"It's–"

Yukina stopped as the shadow fell abruptly, landing hard behind them in an ungraceful pile of black and white.

"Mister Hiei," she finished, pointing at the tangled mess by their feet.

"Ayie!" Kuwabara cried, recoiling from the fire demon, his face twisting fearfully.

"Is he alright?" Yukina asked, taking a step closer to him and frowning down at him in concern.

"I don't think so," Botan commented, scratching at her head as she took in Hiei's slumped form. "It's not normal for him to fall out of trees head-first in a sort of plummeting fashion. Usually he leaps out of trees and lands quite gracefully on his feet."

Yukina took another step closer to Hiei.

"Mister Hiei?" she said.

She took another step forwards and Botan moved over to join her, both girls bending over to peer down at Hiei. He had landed in an uncharacteristically ungainly heap, his arms and legs sprawled at his sides and his body twisted slightly at the waist. His head was lolled back, his eyes closed and his lips slightly parted. To a casual observer he looked to be in a peaceful sleep, but his slightly dishevelled appearance told otherwise: his bandana was absent, the bandages around his right arm were unravelling and his scarf had come loose, hanging over one shoulder.

"Oh dear…" Botan muttered.

As she and Yukina leaned closer still, their concern growing as they concentrated on Hiei's unusual state, they suddenly found themselves glaring in confusion and disbelief at Kuwabara, who had appeared by Yukina.

"Is he… Is he asleep like that?" Kuwabara asked, poking the stick he held at Hiei's hip.

"Kuwabara! Stop that at once!" Botan scolded him.

"Is he hibernating?" he asked, ignoring Botan and moving the stick to Hiei's chin.

He jabbed the end of the stick against the underside of Hiei's chin, forcing his head back a little further. It was then Botan's turn to squeal and leap back fearfully as she anticipated a sudden and violent response from Hiei; but none came.

"Oh dear!" she said again, edging back into her former position by Yukina's side. "He's either sleeping very deeply or he's…"

Botan's voice trailed off and she glanced nervously at Yukina and then Kuwabara.

"Do you think he's dead?" Kuwabara asked. "Ew! I touched him with this!"

Kuwabara threw the stick away and staggered a few steps back from Hiei as Botan began telling him off for not being more supportive of a former ally and friend. Yukina meanwhile took a more sensible approach and knelt by Hiei's side, slipping one hand under his scarf to feel for a pulse, placing her other hand by his mouth and nose to feel for his breath.

"He's alive," she announced.

"There you see!" Botan said smugly.

"But his heartbeat is unusual and his breathing is irregular," Yukina added. "I think he's sick!"

"I could have told you that without checking his pulse…" Kuwabara muttered.

"We have to help him, Botan!" Yukina said.

"Of course!" Botan agreed, kneeling down beside Yukina. "Now let me just see here…"

Botan moved one hand towards Hiei's face, pausing as she realised that her next action was not going to be as simple as she had expected. She had been about to lift one of his eyelids to check his state of consciousness, but the idea occurred to her that he had three eyes, one of which was linked more closely to his subconscious, which left her unsure if she ought to check one of his original eyes or the jagan on his forehead.

"Um…" she muttered, sweating a little as she remembered his death threats from the night before.

He could awaken at any moment, she thought darkly, and his first action could well be to put his hand around her throat. She took a deep breath and tried to push her fears out of her mind, concentrating instead on how innocent and boyish he looked when he was unconscious. She smiled a little, deciding that she liked him better this way. Then she screwed up her face as she realised what she had just concluded. Then she turned pale and her eyes doubled in size as the idea came to her that Hiei might still be able to read her thoughts in his current condition.

"Let's see if he's fully unconscious or not," she said aloud, trying to focus herself by commentating on her own actions.

She gently pressed her thumb against the corner of his eye nearest her, pushing up his eyelid.

"Ah well," she said, closing his eye again. "That looks like he is unconscious. Now…"

She cautiously touched her thumb to the corner of the jagan eye on his forehead, her hand shaking a little as she eased it open slightly. She yelped and retracted her hand after only opening it to a thin crack, the sight of the purple eye staring straight up at her taking her by surprise. She had been expecting the jagan eye to look the same as his own eyes did: rolled back into his skull.

"Ew!" Kuwabara said over her shoulder. "Creepy!"

"Well that's fine," Botan said awkwardly, pressing her thumb against the eye again.

She let out a small noise of surprise when, instead of the jagan closing, it opened slightly wider.

"What are you doing, Botan?" Kuwabara wailed.

"I can't get it to close!" she wailed, pressing harder at Hiei's forehead.

Botan and Kuwabara both yelped and leapt back from Hiei as his jagan eye opened fully, staring up at them, the pupil dilated and unfocussed.

"That's so weird!" Kuwabara said. "Botan, you're sick!"

"Excuse me?" Botan echoed. "I was checking on his condition!"

"We should take him back to Genkai's," Yukina suggested.

"Yes that's right, we should," Botan agreed. "Pick him up, Kuwabara."

"Do what now?" Kuwabara echoed.

"Pick him up!" Botan repeated impatiently. "He is clearly incapacitated. You'll have to carry him back."

"Why do I have to do it?" he whined.

"Because neither Yukina or I have the strength to carry him all the way back!"

Kuwabara eyed Botan over carefully before looking briefly at Yukina, as though considering the idea of either of them carrying Hiei.

"But he's just a little guy, and you said that you were tough, Botan," he eventually said, meeting Botan's eyes.

"That's despicable!" Botan argued.

"Excuse me?" Yukina said, distracting them from their argument. "I think Mister Hiei has a fever."

Botan lowered her head, feeling instantly humbled when she saw that Yukina had not been as foolish as she and Kuwabara were being, touching her hand to Hiei's forehead, her fingers all around his jagan eye without a second thought.

"Get to it, Kuwabara," Botan said quietly, slapping Kuwabara's arm and pointing down at Hiei.

"You're a nag!" Kuwabara moaned.

"Please, Kazuma!" Yukina pleaded.

"Of course Yukina my love!" Kuwabara said, dropping to his knees by her side.

"Thank you," she said sweetly, rising to her feet. "You have such a good heart."

She touched a hand to his shoulder and leaned forwards to kiss him on the forehead, bringing a goofy grin to his face. He continued to gaze dreamily up at her until Botan cleared her throat loudly and obnoxiously, bringing his attention back to the situation at hand.

"Right," he muttered, turning back to Hiei.

"Come along Yukina, we'll go ahead and prepare a bed for Hiei," Botan suggested.

"Right!" Yukina agreed.

Yukina took off at a sprint towards the temple, but Botan hesitated, a grunting sound behind her distracting her. She suspected that she was not going to like the source of it, but forced herself to turn around regardless, her jaw dropping at what she saw.

"Kuwabara, how could you?" she yelled.

Kuwabara snorted amusedly, but did not stop what he was doing: which was holding Hiei's head up by his hair and using his other hand to manipulate one of Hiei's fingers up his nose.

"He's picking his nose!" Kuwabara laughed. "I wish I had a camera!"

"Stop that at once!" Botan snapped, stamping a foot at him.

"You're no fun, Botan!" he groaned, dropping Hiei's hand.

Botan flicked her wrist in the air, her baseball bat reappearing in her hand.

"I'm on it," Kuwabara said hurriedly, gathering Hiei up and positioning him over his shoulder.

"You'd better be!" Botan warned him.

To make sure Kuwabara did not try any more silly games, Botan followed behind him as he walked back to the temple, keeping her baseball bat in her hand. By the time they had reached the temple entrance, Yukina had already brought Yusuke and Kurama there to meet them.

"What the hell happened?" Yusuke asked as Kuwabara neared him.

"The little guy fell out of a tree," Kuwabara plainly replied.

"He's sick," Yukina added.

"I could have told you that," Yusuke muttered.

"That's what I said!" Kuwabara said with a grin.

"Stop that!" Botan warned him.

"Take him to my room," Kurama suggested. "You can put him in the bed Koenma slept in last night."

Kuwabara obediently took Hiei to the bed Kurama had suggested and dropped him onto it a little roughly before joining the others to kneel at his side.

"Ew!" Yusuke moaned as he knelt down by Hiei's head. "Is that thing always open?" he asked, pointing at Hiei's jagan eye.

"No," Kuwabara replied, kneeling down opposite Yusuke. "Botan opened it!"

"Botan!" Yusuke cried, turning to her. "What is wrong with you?"

Botan huffed and tapped her bat against the palm of her hand threateningly.

"I think he has a fever," Yukina said to Kurama.

"The best thing for him at this time is rest," Kurama replied. "I think we should leave him here for now. If he does not awaken or his condition does not improve, we will revaluate the situation later."

"Can it see us?" Yusuke asked, waving a hand in front of Hiei's open eye.

"I dunno, but it sure is creepy!" Kuwabara replied.

"I dare you to poke it," Yusuke said to him.

"Ew, that's disgusting! No way, Urameshi! You poke it!"

"You poke it! I'll give you five thousand yen if you poke it."

"I dunno, he might kill me…"

Kurama sighed patiently.

"I said the best thing for Hiei right now is rest," he repeated, raising his voice slightly. "I think we should leave him here for now. Alone."

"It hasn't blinked since Botan opened it," Kuwabara said, ignoring Kurama entirely.

"It never does blink," Yusuke replied.

"Seriously?" Kuwabara echoed. "Huh… No, I don't think I have ever seen it blink. That's so sick!"

"Boys!" Botan snapped. "Kurama just told you that we need to leave Hiei alone to rest!"

Kuwabara suddenly jabbed a finger at Hiei's forehead, the tip of his finger briefly touching Hiei's exposed eye. He withdrew his hand as quickly as he had moved it forwards, shuddering and moaning to himself.

"Damn, it didn't even flinch!" Yusuke said, leaning over Hiei. "I thought it might shrivel, like a snail when you poke its eyes."

"It was wet," Kuwabara whined. "And warm!"

"Kuwabara, you're disgusting!" Yusuke said, shaking his head.

"Hey, you were the one who said I should do it!" Kuwabara argued.

"You don't have to do what I tell you to."

"You owe me five thousand yen, Urameshi!"

"I don't have that kind of money on me."

"But we made a deal!"

"Well let's make a new deal: I'll make sure Hiei never finds out you poked his jagan eye and in return you pay me ten thousand yen."

"Urameshi, you…!"

"Stop it, both of you!" Botan snapped. "Go on, get out of here and let poor Hiei get some rest!"

"Fine by me," Yusuke said through a sigh.

Kuwabara stood up across from him, scowling at him angrily. As they left the room they threw a few punches at each other, leaving Botan shaking her head as she watched them go.

"They haven't grown up one bit since the day I first met them!" she said, turning back to Kurama and Yukina.

Kurama smiled sympathetically but said nothing.

"I think we should take off Mister Hiei's coat," Yukina said.

"I'll leave you girls to it," Kurama said, standing up and nodding politely to each of them in turn. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you Kurama," Botan said to him as he passed her. "At least we can always rely on you to be the voice of reason!"

Botan watched Kurama leave before turning back to Yukina, who was in the process of removing Hiei's scarf, being careful to disturb him as little as possible with her actions. But as Yukina slid the scarf from Hiei's neck, Botan's eyes grew as she spotted the two chains by his throat. The stones on the end of them were still concealed beneath his coat, but Yukina would notice them shortly if she did not intervene, and memories of Hiei's death threats to her regarding allowing Yukina to learn her relation to him were still fresh in Botan's mind.

"Yukina!" she blurted out a little too urgently, diving down to Yukina's side.

Yukina looked over her shoulder at Botan, her face impassive as though she was accustomed to Botan randomly yelling and pouncing on her.

"Why don't you let me do this?" Botan asked, grinning a little too widely. "Why don't you go and start making some more of that lovely soup you made us last night, so that when Hiei wakes up, he'll have a nice meal ready for him!"

"Oh what a nice idea, Botan!" Yukina said sweetly.

"Yes, isn't it?" Botan said, inwardly thanking Enma that Yukina was so naïve. "Run along then."

Botan got to her feet again, pulling Yukina with her, and ushering her towards the door.

"And remember to put in extra amounts of Hiei's favourite ingredient!" Botan sang as she gently pushed Yukina out of the room into the hallway.

"Which ingredient is his favourite?" Yukina asked, stumbling slightly as Botan released her.

"Um… I don't know!" Botan laughed. "Don't you know?"

Yukina shook her head, and Botan realised that she had never actually seen Hiei eat – ever.

"Oh well, make it just the same as you did before then!" she said, before sharply sliding the door shut between them and sighing in relief.

She then made her way back to where Hiei lay, kneeling down beside him. She quickly removed the hiruiseki stones from around his neck, turning from side to side as she tried to think of a sensible place to stash them until Hiei woke up. When inspiration failed her she shrugged and pulled the chains over her head, tucking the stones under her shirt out of sight. She then set about removing his coat, which proved more difficult than she had expected it to, as she was forced to push and pull him about quite a bit to get it off, all the while terrified that he might awaken and be furious to find that she was manipulating him like a rag-doll.

Once Botan had successfully removed Hiei's coat she sighed with relief and folded it neatly, placing it next to his bed. She then turned her attention to the bandages around his right arm, which had come loose over his hand. Apparently the wrapping had been severed just above his wrist, exposing a small part of the skin around the base of his hand. She reached over and wound the dressing around the exposed areas before tying the cut ends in a little bow across his knuckles, mentally reminding herself to cut it open again before Hiei realised she had tied a pretty little bow in the dressing he wore to cover his greatest weapon.

Botan then tried pinching at Hiei's forehead to make his jagan eye close, only giving up after several failed attempts. She withdrew her hands and tilted her head to one side as she regarded him, silently wondering how she was going to go about putting a cold cloth over his forehead when he had a giant open eye in the middle of it.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei wakes up and isn't too happy with Botan, especially when he discovers that she has his precious hiruiseki hanging around her neck: but his attempts to recover them don't go exactly as planned, leaving one confused Botan. **Chapter 3: The Misunderstanding**.


	3. The Misunderstanding

**Recap:** Hiei fell ill and the others took him in, but Kuwabara couldn't resist making a few jokes first. In her desperation to hide Hiei's hiruiseki from Yukina, Botan put them on herself.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Misunderstanding**

Botan hummed merrily to herself as she dabbed a cold cloth against Hiei's forehead, carefully avoiding his jagan eye. He had been lying in the bed for several hours, during which time Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama had set off to do a little investigating by the known local portals to demon world and Yukina had, with Kurama's assistance, diagnosed Hiei as having an infection that he must have contracted from another demon. Although he had dropped in on them – quite literally, Botan thought with a smile – in quite a poor state, Hiei did seem to be improving, as his chest was rising and falling more steadily and his jagan eye had drooped to a squint, making him look more at ease. His temperature, however, was still very high, so Botan had decided to tend to it with the wet cloth.

She turned to her side and dipped the cloth into the bowl of cool water again, squeezing it out and folding it neatly before turning back to Hiei. She started to reach for his forehead but stopped as she saw that his jagan eye was suddenly closed tightly.

"Hiei?" she said gently.

"Hn," he grunted, his nose twitching slightly.

"Hiei?" she said in an increasingly louder voice. "Hiei, can you hear me? How do you feel?"

"Half the world can hear you," he grumbled, opening his eyes to thin slits to glare up at her. "And I feel like you should shut-up and get away from me."

"Excellent!" Botan said brightly. "You're almost back to your old self again!"

Hiei glared at her for a long, drawn out moment before opening his eyes a little wider and flicking them about himself.

"Where am I?" he asked, moving his eyes back to hers.

"Genkai's temple," she replied. "We found you in the forest. You took a bit of a fall so we took you back here."

On her last words Hiei gave Botan another look that she believed could probably kill. They both remained silent and neither so much as blinked as they stared at each other, the moment only ending when the door slid open and Yukina entered the room.

"Botan, I brought some flowers from the garden," she said as she walked in. "I thought maybe-oh! Mister Hiei, you're awake!"

Hiei's eyes moved to Yukina, his expression softening slightly from a vile death-glare to an emotionless void.

"How do you feel?" Yukina asked him.

"Fine," he growled, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

Despite his response, neither Botan nor Yukina failed to notice the tensing of his features as he lifted himself up and the sweat that broke out across his brow. Once he was up he looked down at himself, his head jerking to one side as he saw something that apparently displeased him.

"Where is my sword?" he demanded, looking at the place on his hip where it usually hung.

"In the corner of the room," Botan replied, pointing to where she had stood the weapon.

Hiei then looked at his hands, his lip curling slightly as he spotted the bow Botan had made in the dressing over his right hand. He did not mention it, instead looking down at his chest.

"Where are my clothes?" he asked. "And where's my–"

He slapped a hand against the point on his chest where the hiruiseki usually rested, his head lifting sharply and his eyes landing on Yukina.

"You have a fever, so we took off your coat and your scarf," she told him.

"Yes, that's right, you do have a fever and you should be relaxing, Hiei," Botan added.

Hiei turned sharply to her, glaring at her intently. She twitched slightly as his voice again blared through her mind in a telepathic message, demanding to know where the hirui stones were and warning her not to lie to him. She cleared her throat awkwardly and turned her head to one side, pulling her collar back and pointing to the two chains that rested there.

"How dare you?" he growled aloud.

She turned to him, meeting his eyes and grinning nervously.

"Yukina?" she said, glancing at Yukina briefly before returning her attention to Hiei. "Why don't you bring Hiei some of that lovely soup you made?"

Hiei's features tightened but he said nothing until Yukina had left the room.

"Give me back my things and get out of my way," he said in a low voice.

"Ah-ah!" Botan replied, shaking a finger at him. "You're in no condition to go anywhere right now!"

"Just…"

Hiei's face twitched slightly as though he was too disgusted with Botan to even bother finishing his sentence. He then shuffled about a little before rising to his feet, where he staggered slightly, one hand grabbing at his head.

"I told you to stay in bed!" Botan scolded him. "Now back you go!"

She reached her hands out towards him but with his typical, preternatural speed, Hiei managed to catch her wrists in his hands, holding back her offers of help. She pouted at him and tried to slip from his grasp, but he stubbornly held on, glaring back at her with as much menace as he could muster in his current state.

"You should at least let yourself rest today," Botan insisted.

"Give me back what's mine, or I will take it back by force," Hiei warned her.

An image of Hiei grabbing the chains and yanking on them with all his strength, severing her head in the process, passed through Botan's mind and she gulped audibly, trying once more to wriggle out of his grip. To her surprise, he suddenly released her, his anger fading from his face as his eyes moved to something over her shoulder. Turning her head she saw Yukina returning with a tray of food and water, and again she was silently thankful for the little ice demon's presence.

"Ah look at this, isn't this lovely!" Botan said, hurrying over to Yukina's side.

She leaned over the tray in balancing on Yukina's arms, inhaling the warm scent of the food with a smile.

"It smells wonderful," she said, picking up the bowl of soup in both hands and bringing it over to Hiei. "Here, have a smell."

Hiei stared at her blankly for a moment before glancing at Yukina and finally complying with Botan's suggestion. He leaned forwards and inhaled slightly, his face contorting. Yukina made a small noise of disappointment and Botan was surprised that Hiei was responding so unfavourably to the meal his sister had so lovingly prepared for him: but she quickly realised that Hiei was not screwing up his face in disgust, but rather tensing for what was to follow.

With barely any forewarning, Hiei sneezed hard into the bowl, spraying most of the contents over Botan.

"Oh no!" Yukina cried.

Hiei grunted out an animalistic noise that Botan thought sounded like his best attempt at an apology to Yukina, before dropping to his knees and wiping his nose along his bandaged arm.

"Oh Hiei, don't do that!" Botan said. "That's very unhygienic!"

"Botan, are you alright?" Yukina asked, dabbing at Botan's cheek with a napkin.

"Oh I'm fine!" Botan replied. "The soup did burn a little at first, but I'm fine now."

"Oh no, did I make it too hot?" Yukina asked. "Or too spicy if it made Mister Hiei sneeze…?"

"Mister Hiei is sneezing because he has an infection," Botan assured her.

Hiei lifted his head, glowering up at Botan.

"That's right, you have an infection," Yukina confirmed. "You must have caught it off of another demon. Kurama said it's usually passed on through blood."

"So licking another demon's blood off or your sword might cause you to become infected?" Botan asked Yukina.

"Absolutely!" Yukina innocently agreed.

"Interesting…" Botan said, tapping a finger against her chin and smirking at Hiei.

"I'll clean this mess up," Yukina said, missing the exchange of snide looks between Botan and Hiei.

"No worries," Botan said, putting the bowl back onto the tray and then taking the tray from Yukina. "You make sure Hiei gets back into bed and I will clean up."

"Okay," Yukina agreed.

Botan quickly moved to the doorway, where she paused to sneak a look back into the room. Yukina was arranging pillows behind Hiei, who was watching her with an almost fearful look on his face. Botan smiled to herself and continued towards the kitchen, silently musing that Hiei was not afraid of Yukina, but rather afraid of himself around her. As she felt a stray noodle slide down the front of her shirt, Botan wondered if Hiei would ever tell Yukina who he was; but she did not let the thought linger in her mind in case Hiei appeared in her thoughts – uninvited – again and began berating her for thinking such things.

* * *

Kuwabara was the first of the group to return to Genkai's temple that evening. He was a little surprised, as he had probably travelled the furthest of the three in search of anything suspicious by the known entrances to demon world. When he entered the temple, he could smell that Yukina had been cooking and that she had picked fresh flowers to decorate the rooms with: she was so adorable!

Kuwabara grinned, checking his reflection as he passed a mirror, smoothing back his hair with one hand and licking off something that had become lodged between his teeth. He then started towards the kitchen, only breaking his confident stroll when something dull thumped against the other side of a wall he was passing. He stopped short, frowning at the wall curiously, wondering what could have caused the sound.

"I thought I told you to stop doing that to me, woman!" he heard Hiei yell from the other side of the wall.

"Huh?" he grunted, stepping closer to the wall.

"Hiei, don't you understand?" Botan screamed back at him. "I have to do it: you're just so incredibly hot!"

"What?" Kuwabara squeaked, moving closer still to the wall.

"Hot?" Hiei snarled. "Of course I'm hot! Look at me, I'm a fire demon, you idiot!"

There was a brief silence, and in his increasing curiosity, Kuwabara stepped up to press his ear against the wall. At a strain, he could just about make out the sounds of two people panting heavily: which only made him all the more suspicious about what Botan and Hiei were doing.

"It's very sensitive!" Hiei said, his voice quieter. "You should know that!"

"I didn't mean to be so rough with you Hiei!" Botan replied, in an apologetic tone. "But you kept wriggling away from me and my hand just slipped!"

"Maybe you should keep your hands to yourself from now on," Hiei grumbled.

"Well maybe if it wasn't so big and you hadn't got so excited I wouldn't have splashed all over it like that," Botan muttered.

"Hey Kuwabara!"

Kuwabara screamed, leaping back from the wall and dropping into a defensive stance on instinct. Yusuke tilted his head to one side, frowning curiously at his friend.

"Gees, all I said was "hey Kuwabara"," he groaned, rolling his eyes. "You're a bit jumpy. What's wrong this time?"

Kuwabara felt his face grow hot as he glanced back and forth between Yusuke and the wall.

"What's eating you?" Yusuke asked.

"It's Botan and Hiei," Kuwabara whispered, pointing a thumb at the wall.

"Botan and Hiei?" Yusuke repeated, squinting at the wall. "What are you talking about, you idiot?"

"Botan and Hiei are in there," Kuwabara whispered. "And I think they're having-Yukina!"

"They're having Yukina?" Yusuke echoed. "What the hell does that mean?"

Yusuke turned around to see that Kuwabara had left him and was prancing down the hallway after Yukina, rushing to help her carry a basket of clean linen. Yusuke shook his head and started to walk on, but stopped again as he heard a sudden crashing sound from the other side of the wall Kuwabara had been pointing at.

"Enough!" he heard Hiei yell.

Yusuke leapt out of the way an instant before the wall exploded across the hall floor and Hiei staggered out, clutching one hand over his forehead and grabbing at the rubble to steady himself.

"Hey Hiei," he said. "Nice bit of renovating. I always thought that room would look better if it was part of the hallway."

"Shut-up," Hiei muttered, picking his way carefully through the mess he had created.

"Hiei, you are being ridiculously stubborn!" Botan called after him.

A moment later she slid open the door and stepped out into the hall.

"You see?" she said. "It's much simpler when you just use the door like everybody else!"

"Everything okay here?" Yusuke asked, smirking amusedly.

"No," Hiei growled. "That woman is trying to kill me. And if she does not succeed, I will kill her!"

"Everything's just the same as always, apparently," Yusuke said, stifling laughter as he spoke.

"Oh don't mind mister grouchy boots!" Botan said cheerfully. "He's just upset because I accidentally hurt him when I was trying to help him."

"You poured acid into my jagan eye, you bitch!" Hiei snarled, baring his teeth at her.

Yusuke pulled a face at Botan but she merely rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively at Hiei.

"I was trying to cool his fever by placing a cold cloth over his forehead," she explained. "But he pushed my hand away and I squeezed the cloth too hard, dripping the water into his eye."

"You poisoned that water!" Hiei argued.

"I added some lavender and menthol to it," Botan replied, shrugging innocently. "Which may have made your eye sting just a little bit–"

"Sting?" Hiei roared, pulling his hand from his forehead. "You almost blinded me!"

Yusuke recoiled at the sight of Hiei's puffy and reddened third eye, but Botan seemed unaffected.

"I was trying to help you," she reminded him. "And you are supposed to be resting, not punching down walls."

"I'm leaving," he coldly replied. "Just as soon as I… Get…"

He blinked heavily and staggered a little before slouching forwards. On instinct Botan leapt towards him, hooking her arms under his to catch his weight before he slumped to the ground.

"Let go…" he slurred, bunching his fists into the material of her sleeves.

Botan frowned down at the top of his head, unsure of what he was trying to do. He was pushing his fists into her arms as though he was trying to push her away but he was also gripping onto her sleeves so hard to hold himself up that the seams at her shoulders were starting to open.

"Yusuke?" she said, turning to him with a pleading look.

"Come on little guy, let's get you back to bed," Yusuke said, walking over and taking one of Hiei's arms.

Together Yusuke and Botan took one of Hiei's arms around their shoulders each and supported him back over the crumbled remains of the wall he had destroyed, laying him down onto the bed he had been occupying earlier.

"My eye…" he muttered as his head touched the pillow.

"I'll rinse it with water for you," Botan offered.

"Touch me even one more time and I will slaughter you," Hiei replied, his voice unusually soft for the threat his words contained.

"He'll be fine," Yusuke told Botan with a smile. "He's still a nasty little prick, so he can't be too ill."

Hiei slurred out something complete incoherent before closing all three of his eyes and relaxing into the bedding.

"He looks so cute when he sleeps," Botan whispered.

"I'm still awake!" Hiei rasped, opening one eye to glare at her.

"Ugh…" Botan muttered, leaning back from him.

"Is everything alright in here?" Kurama asked, stepping over the rubble with a hint of a curious frown.

"Pretty much," Yusuke casually replied.

Kurama continued into the room, looking back over his shoulder at the mess Hiei had created.

"Hiei decided that he didn't like the wall," Yusuke added.

Kurama turned to him and nodded his understanding, his face straightening.

"Are you relaxing like you're supposed to be, Hiei?" he asked, peering down at Hiei.

Hiei muttered out a curse in reply, at which Kurama calmly stepped forwards, easing his way between Yusuke and Botan, who were watching him with curious interest. He then smoothly lowered himself to one knee by Hiei's bedside and reached a hand down, grabbing a handful of Hiei's hair and lifting his head sharply before smacking it back against the floor. Hiei barely had time to grunt out a noise of complaint before he lost consciousness.

"Oh my!" Botan gasped. "Are you sure you should have done that, Kurama?"

"This way we know he'll get some rest," Kurama replied, rising to his feet again.

Botan wanted to question Kurama's logic further, but the serenely confident look on his face made her stop herself. Instead she chewed at her lip and looked down at Hiei worriedly, silently hoping that he had not been hurt. Although he was unpleasant and sometimes just downright vicious, she did not wish him any harm. After all, she thought to herself, he had never hurt her and she was confident that he never would. And she was sure that the reason he had appeared at Genkai's was simply because he was going to help the others, because although he often acted aloof and uncaring, he had always supported his friends when they had needed him the most.

Botan smiled slightly as she looked at Hiei's unconscious features, which she did still think looked surprisingly calm and youthfully cute despite his character. Perhaps he looked so different in sleep because he was unable to scowl like he usually did when he was awake, she mused. She then wondered if he ever smiled out of happiness, or if he had only ever grinned out of maliciousness, a look she had seen on his face all too often.

A muffled snort cut into Botan's thoughts and she turned to the source, finding Yusuke and Kuwabara watching her, their faces fighting off grins as she looked their way.

"What are you two scheming?" she asked, folding her arms and frowning at them.

They both shook their heads, but looked no less amused. Botan suspected that they were laughing at her for some reason or another, though she could not figure out why. After trying to nurse Hiei she was exhausted and did not have the energy to try to wrangle the truth out of them so she left the room, using the door unlike everyone else, and set off in search of Yukina, the one person she knew that she could rely on not be rude or cheeky towards her.

* * *

The next day, despite Botan, Yukina and even Kurama disagreeing, Hiei left the temple and set out with the others to check the known gateways between living world and demon world. The group agreed that they would be back at Genkai's before sundown again, but would return sooner if they found anything unusual or suspicious. For Botan and Yukina back at Genkai's, the time passed quite quickly, and before they had finished cooking a meal for the boys, Kuwabara and Yusuke had already returned. Kuwabara set about fussing over Yukina as soon as he arrived, who remained as confused and wary of his attentions as ever, whilst Yusuke stole various items of half-cooked food before sitting up onto the kitchen counter next to Botan.

"Did you find anything at all?" she asked him.

He shook his head.

"I think we're looking in the wrong places," he replied. "Or maybe from the wrong side."

"The wrong side?" Botan repeated.

"Yeah," Yusuke said. "The wrong side of the portals. I think we need to be in demon world."

"But if anyone there finds out what we're doing, finds out that there might be some sort of rebellion, it could cause chaos this close to the next tournament."

Yusuke nodded, his face stern. He then eyed Botan over, a smirk slowly creeping onto his face, bringing a sparkle to his dark eyes.

"So Botan," he said. "What did you do to Hiei yesterday?"

"What?" Botan echoed, looking up at him questioningly. "Oh you mean when I was trying to help him and he lost his temper with me?"

"He seemed a bit… Flustered today," Yusuke slowly replied.

"I doubt that," Botan said, failing to notice the devious look on Yusuke's face. "Although maybe he still has a bit of a temperature, he really should have spent more time recovering – not that he doesn't have fantastic recovery abilities, but I do think some more bed-rest would have done him a world of good. But at least he's helping us now. I always knew that he would do eventually!"

Botan crossed the room and Yusuke slipped off of the counter, following her with his smirk still in place.

"Kuwabara said that you were going at it pretty hard with Hiei yesterday," he said bluntly as Botan opened the fridge door.

"Oh well I had to!" Botan replied, still failing to understand Yusuke's implied meaning. "He was behaving like such a wretched little bugger, if he had just held still it would have been swift and painless for us both!"

Yusuke snorted into his hand, fighting back the urge to laugh out loud.

"Did you want it to be swift and painless?" he asked.

"Well of course I did!" Botan replied, closing the fridge door again. "I didn't want to prolong the moment, but, well you know Hiei!"

Yusuke began laughing, no longer able to hide his merriment in his hands as Botan's face slowly dropped.

"What are you chortling about over there?" she demanded.

Before Yusuke could compose himself enough to answer Kuwabara and Kurama entered the kitchen, both frowning at Yusuke as they watched him laugh at a joke apparently only he understood.

"Well today has been another unsuccessful day," Kurama said to Botan, after shaking his head at Yusuke. "We haven't found anything and we've lost Hiei."

"You've lost Hiei?" Botan echoed, touching a hand to her throat. "But he can't have left us, I've still got his–"

Botan stopped abruptly, her eyes doubling in size and her face turning pale.

"Oh yeah?" Yusuke said, grinning at her wildly. "You've still got his what, Botan?"

Kuwabara whispered a lewd suggestion to Yusuke, who proceeded to howl with laughter.

"What are you talking about?" Yukina asked. "I don't understand. What does that word mean?"

Kurama glared warningly at Yusuke and Kuwabara who held up their hands in defeat and left the kitchen, giggling as they went.

"Botan?" Kurama asked once they had gone. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, but…" she said, glancing over his shoulder at Yukina. "Yukina!" she called to her. "I think I need some more sakura leaves, could you pick me some please?"

"A-alright," Yukina replied, still looking a little lost and confused.

Botan waited until Yukina was out of sight before starting to unbutton her shirt.

"Botan!" Kurama said, holding up his hands and stepping back from her. "Please, I really only think of you as a friend, I don't–"

"No, silly!" Botan scolded him. "Look!"

She pulled her shirt collar open, revealing the two hiruiseki that still hung around her neck. Kurama's eyebrows lifted until they disappeared beneath his hair, the whites of his eyes showing all around his green irises.

"Hiei gave you his hirui stone?" he whispered. "And he gave you Yukina's stone too?"

"I didn't think he would leave without them," Botan replied.

"My goodness, I always knew that he found you very pleasing to look at, but I never thought that he would fall in love with you!"

"Well you see I just… Wait, what?"

Kurama and Botan exchanged surprised looks before both slowly switching to looks of suspicious confusion.

"Hiei gave you those as a sign of his affection, yes?" Kurama asked.

Botan shook her head, her face pale.

"Then how…?" he asked.

"I took them from him," she replied. "Yukina was tending to him when we first found him unconscious, and I was afraid that she would see them and realise who he was. I thought it was only fair that he tell her when is ready to tell her himself. I didn't think it would be right for either of them to find out like that. I didn't have time to hide them anywhere, so I just… Put them on. I forgot to give them back before you all left this morning, but I assumed that Hiei was coming back here tonight!"

"Oh… Right, yes, of course. Well played."

Botan narrowed her eyes at Kurama, who gave a small, nervous smile. She then felt her face grow hot as she began to blush.

"Oh my!" she gasped. "Did you say Hiei has… Hiei is… What did you say earlier about affections?"

"Nothing," Kurama flatly replied.

"You did!" Botan argued. "I distinctly heard you say that Hiei has… Hiei… Oh my goodness, Hiei?"

Botan touched one hand to her mouth, lowering her eyes in thought, her mind replaying the highlights of every conversation and confrontation she had ever shared with Hiei. After several seconds of cursing, death threats, condescension and general disgust she lifted her eyes to Kurama's again.

"Hiei hates me!" she concluded. "He thinks I'm an insufferable hindrance!"

"Yes, I'm sure he does," Kurama replied.

Botan opened her mouth to argue with Kurama for agreeing with her so readily, but as she considered the alternative – the idea that, as Kurama had suggested, Hiei had feelings for her – she decided that she preferred the idea of Kurama confirming that Hiei saw her only as an irksome pest.

"Well alright then," she said, buttoning her shirt up to the neck to conceal the treasures still hanging around her neck.

"And you are right of course," Kurama added. "Hiei ought to return for those stones."

Botan nodded her agreement.

"And if he doesn't, I have a way of bringing him back here," she said.

Kurama's face twitched slightly and Botan began to blush again.

"I didn't mean anything like that!" she cried. "I wasn't talking about anything…"

She sighed, shoving her hands into her jean pockets and fumbling around until she found what she sought.

"Ta-da!" she said, holding out the object she had retrieved towards Kurama.

"Oh dear…" Kurama muttered. "The mystic whistle. My favourite item from spirit world…"

Kurama started to reach for the whistle in Botan's hand but she quickly closed her fist around it and drew it back out of his reach.

"We can use it to call for Hiei!" she suggested. "It worked the last time I used it!"

Kurama remained silent, but even Botan suspected that he was suppressing displeasure beneath his neutral expression.

"Cover your ears, Kurama!" she said cheerfully.

Kurama groaned quietly but moved his hands to his ears regardless.

"Ooh, you too Yukina!" Botan added as Yukina returned with a basket of sakura leaves. "Cover your ears. And maybe warn…"

Botan had been about to tell Yukina to warn Yusuke to cover his ears too, but as she remembered him mocking her, she decided that this would be her revenge.

"Cover your ears, Yukina!" she said again, before dashing towards the back door.

Once she was outside, Botan took a few long strides away from the building before drawing in a deep breath and lifting the whistle towards her lips. She closed her eyes and closed her mouth, her lips crashing together. She opened her eyes again in surprise, crossing her eyes to look down at her hand, seeing an empty space where the whistle had been perched between her fingers moments earlier.

"What…?" she muttered.

"Looking for something?"

Botan turned towards the source of the voice, whimpering as she saw Hiei standing a short distance from her, leaning one shoulder against a tree, his fingers on one hand tangled around the string of the mystic whistle, which he was casually spinning around in the air.

"Hiei!" she said, smiling awkwardly. "How lucky! I was just about to look for you!"

"You were just about to use this thing to call for me like I'm some sort of pet," he said, his eyes thinning as he spoke.

"Not a pet…" Botan said, scratching at the back of her head and avoiding looking directly at him.

"Hn," he grunted.

He suddenly grabbed out his hand, catching the whistle in his fist.

"I'm tired of your silly games," he said.

Botan held up a finger to correct Hiei, but the look on his face stopped her, and so she watched silently as he squeezed his fist tightly in an attempt to crush the whistle. He tried several times, his knuckles turning so white that Botan began to think the bones of his fingers might burst through the skin from the strain. When he realised that he could not crush the whistle with his hand he brought it to his mouth, chewing on it to no avail, making himself look just like the pet he had claimed that he was not.

"Hiei…?" Botan began.

"Shut-up!" Hiei snapped, dropping the whistle to the ground and stamping on it.

"But Hiei–"

"I said shut-up!"

"Okay dokay…"

Botan waited patiently as Hiei stamped on and then jumped on the whistle repeatedly. When this failed he dropped to his knees and put his hands over it, roasting the ground in a blaze of fire that threatened to spread to the temple and trees around them. He eventually stopped, glaring at the crater of blackened ash he had created, turning very pale when he spotted the mystic whistle lying in the centre of it all, completely unscathed.

"Damn it!" he yelled.

"Oh Hiei, don't do that!" Botan yelped as he began unravelling the bandages around his right arm.

Hiei paused, perhaps considering the lunacy of unleashing the dragon for the sake of a mere whistle, the break long enough for Botan to reach him.

"The mystic whistle can't be destroyed by demonic powers or even by brute force!" she explained, dropping to her knees in front of the whistle and cautiously picking it up from the ashes. "I tried to warn you."

She stood up, lifting the whistle between her thumb and forefinger. She shook it a little to loosen the ash and dirt that came with it, silently noting that whilst the whistle itself was still in tact, the string that had once been attached to it had been incinerated.

"I don't think so," Hiei said, snatching a hand at her.

Boten drew a breath to yelp in surprise but the whistle was already in Hiei's possession again.

"If I can't destroy it, I can at least keep it away from your meddlesome mouth," he said.

"Hiei please, you must give it back to me," Botan said, reaching for the whistle.

He scowled at her and stuffed his hand – and the whistle – into his pocket.

"You don't understand!" she pleaded. "Lord Koenma holds me responsible for that whistle, if I tell him I've lost it, he will punish me!"

"Hn, I don't care about that," Hiei responded.

"Hiei, please!" Botan begged.

"I don't think so."

Botan sighed and dropped her head in defeat.

"And you can give me back the hiruiseki you stole from me too," he added.

Botan lifted her head again, revealing a sly grin that was enough to make even Hiei look a little taken aback – though only a little.

"Let's make a trade," she suggested. "I will give you these stones in return for the mystic whistle."

"Or let's not," Hiei flatly replied.

"I won't hand them over until you return the whistle," she insisted.

"You forget: I took the whistle by force, I can take the stones by force too!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

"You think you can defend yourself against me? Hn, you really are just as stupid as you look!"

Botan shrugged and folded her arms across her chest, tilting her chin upwards to make the height difference between them seem more exaggerated as she looked down at him.

"Fool," he muttered.

He reached a hand out towards her, his fingers stopping just short of touching the collar of her shirt. His fingers drooped a little and he hesitated for a moment in that position before growling and straightening out his fingers again. He inched his hand forwards, the tips of his fingers touching against the collar of her shirt, and again he stopped.

Botan gulped, a sweat breaking out all over her body: she had taken a gamble challenging Hiei to take the stones by force, but this was definitely not the response she had expected from him. She had expected him to either run away in a sulk or push her down to get what he sought; and she had been hoping that if he chose the latter option she might be able to get the whistle out of his pocket when he came at her.

But what was actually happening was both unexpected and uncomfortable.

Hiei slowly moved his hand forwards and Botan gasped quietly as his fingers touched the base of her neck by her shoulder. His touch was light and uncertain, and looking at his face she saw that he was staring at his own hand, looking almost mesmerised as he watched his fingers dancing over the surface of her skin. His tongue darted out to briefly lick at his lips before he slid his hand a little further forwards, his fingers slipping beneath her shirt and the heel of his hand pushing into her collarbone. She let out a small noise of surprise and his eyes snapped up to hers.

As their eyes met, Botan felt as though Hiei had caught her under the glare of his jagan eye rather than his own eyes, as she became completely immobile. He held her gaze for a few seconds before snarling and baring his teeth at her, and in the blink of an eye he leapt away from her, scaling a tree and disappearing into the forest.

As Hiei vanished from sight Botan drew in a shuddering breath and fell hard onto her rear-end, barely noticing the pain of her actions. Her hand fluttered up to her neck, moving into the position Hiei's hand had been in only moments before, moulded to base of her neck and over her shoulder.

"Oh my…" she whispered weakly.

As she retracted her hand, Botan's fingers caught in the two chains still around her neck. Hiei's departure had been so abrupt she had not even noticed that he had failed to recover his stones: though unfortunately for her, he did still have the mystic whistle in his possession.

She slowly got to her feet and turned towards the temple, walking back towards it whilst wondering why her legs felt wobbly and did not seem to want to take her in a straight line. As she returned to the kitchen she passed Yukina and Kurama, who were both still clamping their hands over their ears. As they sighted her passing them they slowly removed their hands, giving her questioning looks which she did not even notice in her dazed state.

Botan continued walking awkwardly through the halls of Genkai's temple, eventually encountering Yusuke and Kuwabara, who moved into her path, halting her progress.

"Hey Botan!" Yusuke greeted her. "I heard Hiei ran away earlier today. I don't suppose you would know where he went to, would you?"

Botan lifted her head, studying Yusuke's mocking expression before turning to take in Kuwabara's smirking visage. She then numbly lifted one hand, her baseball bat slipping into it, and with one swipe she clobbered them both over the head with it. They staggered apart, clutching their heads and complaining, but Botan walked on through the gap they created, continuing until she reached the bedroom she and Yukina had been sharing, which she gladly shut herself into.

She let out a soft moan and knelt down onto her bed, her head spinning as she tried to figure out what had just happened to her. And, moreover, what had happened to Hiei? It was not like him to hesitate for anything, nor was it like him to be gentle with anyone; but his touch had been very tender.

"Oh my…" Botan said, thoughts of her conversation with Kurama returning to her.

Was it possible that Hiei had feelings for her?

As soon as the question rose to the surface of her mind Botan shook it off with a hollow laugh. Hiei was indeed a strange character, but to think that an S-Class demon like him would have any interest in a run-of-the-mill ferry girl like her was nothing short of ridiculous.

Botan slowly hung her head: as ridiculous as it was, it oddly made her feel sad to think that Hiei hated her.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** As the gang continue their search, Botan somehow finds herself alone with Hiei, though neither of them wanted it that way, and Botan's big mouth utters something that has the most unusual effect on Hiei. **Chapter 4: The Surprise**.


	4. The Surprise

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Hiei was feeling better and tried to take his hirui stones back from Botan, but something stopped him. Botan didn't understand, but was also worried because he took her mystic whistle.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Surprise**

The next morning Botan and Yukina arrived in the kitchen for breakfast to find the others in the middle of a four-way argument.

"Damn it, Kurama!" Yusuke yelled. "It's your turn!"

"This isn't a matter of taking turns, Yusuke," Kurama replied, his usually calm voice tight and slightly irritated. "It's a matter of common sense."

"Oh, so now I'm stupid?" Yusuke echoed.

"Hey, don't I get a say in this?" Kuwabara asked.

"No!" the other three all yelled in unison.

Kuwabara folded his arms and muttered complaints under his breath, turning his face away from them all.

"You were born a human, you were the spirit world's special agent, this is your area of expertise," Hiei spat at Yusuke. "Think about it."

"First of all, I'm tired of being stuck with Kuwabara all the time!" Yusuke argued. "And second of all, I have just as much right to go to demon world as any of you do!"

"Yusuke, it makes more sense this way," Kurama insisted. "You and Kuwabara should stay here, and I will go to the demon realm with Hiei. Nobody will suspect Hiei or myself, we know our way around, and we will be able to cover more ground."

"I know my way around demon world and nobody would suspect me there either!" Yusuke pointed out.

"So go then!" Kuwabara cut in. "All three of you, go to demon world! I'll stay here by myself – again – and I'll defend this world on my own – again!"

"You've never defended this world on your own," Yusuke corrected him.

"What about that whole year the three of you were training in demon world?" Kuwabara shot back.

"I wasn't gone for a whole year," Kurama pointed out. "I only stayed in demon world for one month."

"I was on my own here all that time," Kuwabara continued, ignoring Kurama completely. "I had to defend the innocent all on my own. Yukina and Botan know exactly what I'm talking about, right ladies?"

"Um…" Yukina began, frowning in thought.

"I don't know about that Kuwabara, but what is going on in here?" Botan asked.

"Hiei and Kurama are going to demon world and they want me to stay here with Kuwabara," Yusuke answered her. "Again!"

"Is that a problem?" Botan asked.

"I want to go to demon world," Yusuke replied. "If three of us go we can cover a lot more ground. And besides, it gives me a good chance to check out some of the competition for the upcoming tournament!"

"That's a stupid reason," Hiei scoffed. "You should stay here and protect your world. Do you really trust the clown to do it by himself?"

"This is getting us nowhere," Kurama sighed. "I didn't want to have to do this, but for the sake of not wasting any more time I suggest all six of us pair off and start work as soon as possible. Yusuke, you go with Hiei to demon world."

"Alright!" Yusuke said, punching a fist into the air.

"Kuwabara and Botan you can search the areas where people have gone missing to the south, and Yukina and I will check the areas in the north," Kurama finished.

"Wait…" Hiei said, glaring at Kurama. "Do you really think that is wise?"

"I'm not expecting trouble, but Yukina will be safe with me, and I'm sure Kuwabara and Botan can handle anything they might encounter," Kurama smoothly replied.

Hiei still looked less than convinced, but said no more.

"Is everyone happy now?" Kurama asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Hell yeah!" Yusuke said.

"Almost," Kuwabara said. "Hey Kurama, swap partners with me."

"No!" Hiei barked.

Kuwabara arched his eyebrows at Hiei in confusion and Yukina tilted her head slightly with a lost expression: but Kurama, Yusuke and Botan knew only too well why Hiei was angry.

"No," Kurama said to Kuwabara. "We don't have time to argue about this any more."

"Alrighty, let's have breakfast and get to it!" Botan said cheerfully.

"No," Hiei said quietly.

"What now, shorty?" Kuwabara moaned.

"I am well known in demon world as one of the guards of the border patrol," Hiei explained. "If I go there and start searching the borders independent of the patrol, it might arouse suspicion."

"That's a good point," Kurama muttered thoughtfully.

"Kurama, you should go in my place," Hiei said. "You go with Yusuke, I'll stay here and baby-sit the clown."

"Hey!" Kuwabara protested.

"That might be for the best," Kurama slowly agreed. "I'll go with Yusuke, Kuwabara will still go with Botan and Hiei you can take Yukina."

"No," Hiei said, drawing a groan out of Kuwabara. "You go with Yusuke, I will search the north alone and the idiot can check the south by himself. I think Yukina and the witch should stay here."

"Witch?" Botan shrieked, brandishing a fist in the air angrily.

"Yeah Botan, you should probably stay here and look after Yukina and the temple," Yusuke suggested.

"Why do I always get left behind?" she moaned. "This is just like when you fought Sensui! I had to wait outside that cave all on my own, and now you're all leaving me here to miss out on all the action again!"

"You're not a fighter, Botan," Yusuke reminded her.

Botan sighed in defeat and Yusuke nodded to Kurama.

"Let's go," he said.

"Good luck everyone," Kurama said with a wave of his hand before following Yusuke out of the room.

"Come on Yukina, let's have breakfast," Botan said, turning to her friend.

"I've got maps of the areas we need to check," Kuwabara said. "Can you read maps, short-stack?"

"Can you read, oaf?" Hiei smoothly replied.

Botan smirked to herself as she set about preparing breakfast for herself and Yukina. Kuwabara and Hiei was a terrible combination for any situation, and how they were going to manage to agree on their plans for the day was beyond her.

"I don't like you," Kuwabara said, slapping a map down onto the counter.

"I don't care," Hiei said.

"Kazuma, don't be mean to Mister Hiei!" Yukina interrupted them.

Botan's smirk widened and she was careful to keep her back turned to the others. The situation was growing increasingly awkward for Hiei, and she began to wonder why he had even volunteered to stay in the living world.

"He's really sneaky, Yukina," Kuwabara said. "And he's rude, and violent, too."

"Hn," Hiei responded.

"He gets us in trouble when we fight together and then he runs off and does his own thing," Kuwabara continued. "And I especially don't like it when he stands like that."

Botan turned around, too curious to know what Kuwabara was talking about. Hiei was standing a short distance in front of Kuwabara, looking no different to how he usually did.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Like that," Kuwabara replied, pointing at Hiei's nose. "Take your grubby, bandaged, stumpy little mitts out of your pockets so we can see them."

"What?" Hiei barked, his face darkening dangerously.

"You heard me," Kuwabara said.

Botan sighed, the sound somehow attracting Hiei's attention as he turned towards her sharply.

"You!" he said suddenly, pointing at her. "You know your way around this world quite well don't you?"

"Well yes, I do actually," Botan replied.

"Then you will tell me what this means," he said, grabbing up the map Kuwabara had put down and flinging it across the room at Botan.

Botan yelped, catching it awkwardly at her chest, narrowly avoiding getting the corner in one of her eyes.

"I knew you couldn't read maps!" Kuwabara laughed.

"I am finished talking to and listening to you for today," Hiei snapped at him before crossing the room towards Botan.

"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara said. "Well I'm finished talking to and listening to you, tiny!"

Botan glanced back and forth between Hiei – who had stopped in front of her – and Kuwabara, waiting anxiously for one of them to say something else.

"Explain it to me quickly, I don't intend to waste the day clowning around this place," Hiei warned her.

"Clowning around?" Kuwabara echoed. "Hey are you talking about me? Ah, you can just go to hell you moody little c–"

Kuwabara stopped his insult short as he caught Botan glaring at him warningly and Yukina staring at him fearfully.

"I'm going," he grumbled.

"I made you a lunch," Yukina called after him, grabbing up a snack box and hurrying after him.

Botan watched them leave before turning back to Hiei, who was still staring at her a little too intensely.

"It's quite simple," she said, opening out the map. "You see this map is like a picture of the land taken from the sky–"

"Come with me."

"–so just try to imagine that you are… What?"

Botan almost dropped the map as she realised what Hiei had asked of her.

"Come with me," he said again.

"Wh… What?" she said again.

He sighed in frustration.

"Come to the sites with me," he ground out impatiently.

"But… Why?" she asked. "Wasn't it your idea that I should stay behind?"

Hiei paused, his eyes moving to the doorway. Botan followed the direction of his gaze, and shortly saw Yukina reappearing.

"I see," Botan said quietly. "You just didn't want Kuwabara to be alone with–"

Botan stopped short as Hiei's eyes snapped back to hers.

"Oopsie!" she said, grinning nervously.

He stared at her silently until her grin faded before talking again.

"Meet me outside and be quick about it."

Hiei then turned on his heels and marched out, only breaking his stance to wave a hand at Yukina as she wished him luck. Botan turned to the kitchen counter, seeing that two slices of toast had popped up from the toaster. Not wishing to leave Hiei waiting for her she hurriedly grabbed them up, spread them, sandwiched them together and then stuffed them into her mouth.

"Yukina," she said, her voice muffled by her breakfast. "Did you make a lunch for Hiei?"

Yukina shook her head.

"Probably best," Botan said. "I don't think he ever eats, and even when he does, I don't think he's ever satisfied."

Yukina adopted a confused look but Botan ignored it.

"I have to help Hiei with this," she explained, waving the map around.

Yukina stepped forwards and pulled the toast from Botan's mouth.

"Right, sorry," Botan said, grinning. "Silly me! I was trying to say that I have to help Hiei find these sites. Will you be alright here on your own?"

"I'm not on my own," Yukina replied. "I have Puu!"

"Yes, of course you do!"

"Would you like me to make you a lunch box?"

"I don't have time, but thank you for the offer. If you need anything, send Puu."

Botan retrieved her breakfast from Yukina and started towards the door.

"I wonder why Mister Hiei didn't go back to demon world," Yukina said, stopping Botan in her tracks.

"Well, he…"

Botan found that she could not answer Yukina, mainly because she had been wondering exactly the same thing herself. She could not even remember how or why the argument between the four boys had resulted in Hiei staying in the living world with Kuwabara of all people.

"Goodbye!" she said instead, breaking into a run.

She felt a little bad about leaving Yukina alone and without answering her query, but she was more afraid of the consequences of leaving Hiei waiting for her. Once she was outside she quickly located Hiei standing by the edge of the forest, his hands in his pockets and his head turned away from the temple. She hurried over to join him, stopping at his side and taking a bite out of her toast. He turned to face her, rolling his eyes at the sight of her swollen cheeks as she tried to hurriedly chew through her meal.

"Take me to the first site, I won't need you after that," he said.

Botan nodded, summoning her oar and leaping up onto it.

"Do you want to ride with me?"

Hiei's face twitched slightly and Botan froze, mid-chew, the realisation of what she had just suggested – through a mouthful of food, no less – dawning on her.

"So if you want to just follow me then…" she said slowly, rising up into the air a little as she spoke.

"Hn."

Botan was unsure what Hiei's response meant, but took it to be a sound of agreement, and so she rose up above the trees, opening out the map to check her destination. Once she had ascertained the direction she was heading she looked down at Hiei, waving at him to indicate that she was ready to go. He stared up at her blankly and made no attempt to acknowledge her signal, so she eventually gave up and took off as fast as she could, deciding that she could at least make him work hard to keep up with her if nothing else.

The first site they sought was a considerable distance away, and by the time she had neared her destination and started to descend towards the ground, more than two hours had passed and Botan had long ago lost sight of Hiei. She had not been concerned at first, but as she reached the ground by the portal, which was in fact halfway up a rocky hillside, she began to think that it had not been such a good idea to race ahead without him; especially since she had known the way and he had been the one so lost that he had asked her to guide him there.

As Botan stowed her oar, the thought occurred to her Hiei could very well be running around in a circle, hundreds of miles in the wrong direction.

"Hn, idiot."

Botan yelped as she spotted Hiei lying a short distance from her, his hands behind his head, one leg crossed over the other and his eyes closed as though he had been relaxing there for hours waiting for her.

"Hiei!" she breathed, clutching a hand to her chest. "My, you are fast! But… How did you know this was the right place?"

"I work the border patrol in demon world," he replied, his eyes still closed. "I know every access point, from demon world and from this world. I wouldn't be very good at my job if I didn't."

Botan eyed him over suspiciously, the distinct sense that something was amiss rising within her.

"If you knew that this was where you needed to be then why did you ask me to guide you here?" she asked.

"Insurance."

Hiei propped himself up on one elbow, turning to look directly at her.

"I-I don't understand…" she said cautiously, sliding back a step from him.

"You still haven't returned the hiruiseki to me," he said.

"Right…"

Botan frowned, looking about herself as though she expected to find a more sensible explanation for her predicament lying about the hillside.

"You could have just asked me for them back at Genkai's temple," she pointed out. "When we were alone outside. Yukina would not have heard or seen anything."

Hiei got to his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets. Botan gasped at his actions as she suddenly realised why they were so significant.

"You still haven't returned my mystic whistle!" she said, pointing at his pockets accusingly.

"Hn, and I never will," he said, smirking slightly.

"Well then I'm keeping these stones!" Botan replied.

"I'll just take them by force. Or did you forget that I could do that?"

"You couldn't do it last night!"

Botan and Hiei both looked surprised at Botan's last words, and hearing herself say them, Botan found herself reliving the unusual events of the night before when Hiei had made an attempt to take the hiruiseki from her but had somehow not been able to make himself follow through with it.

"This is your last chance to hand them over!" Hiei eventually recovered.

"Not unless you give me back my whistle!" Botan retaliated.

"Fine, have it your way!"

Hiei tore the bandana from his head, fixing her with his jagan eye.

"Look into my eye," he said.

"That doesn't work on me, Hiei," she reminded him.

He stared at her with his third eye for several moments longer before eventually giving up and tying his bandana around his forehead again.

"Then make yourself useful here," he grumbled. "Look around for anything unusual."

"What are you going to do?" Botan asked as Hiei turned his back on her and walked away from her.

"Sleep," he frankly replied.

"Well that's a bit rude!" Botan snapped.

She planted her hands on her hips and glared at the back of his head, but he continued walking away from her at an unhurried pace, eventually finding himself a wide flat rock to lie down on, soon adopting the position he had been in earlier. Botan sighed loudly, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him, but to no avail.

"Well really…" she muttered to herself.

She turned her back on Hiei, partly to block out the image of him mocking her with his unhelpfulness and partly to hide herself from him as she checked that his hirui stones were still securely around her neck. As long as she had them, she decided, she had a degree of control over Hiei, and as long as she had some amount of control over him, he could not refuse to help with the mission Koenma had set for them.

As she wandered down the hill, Botan began to realise that what she had just been thinking about was actually just common blackmail: surely that sort of behaviour was not befitting of a ferry girl of spirit world? Botan wondered what Koenma would think of her if he knew that she was having such thoughts. But then she remembered that he had shut her out of the room when he had been explaining the situation to Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama, something she was still a little angry about, and so she decided that she could think as many dark thoughts about blackmailing a demon as she wanted to.

Botan became so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice that she had wandered into a forest until it began to grow darker around her, the trees growing taller and denser as she walked lower down the hill. She slowed her pace as her visibility began to become restricted, her baseball bat sliding into her hand on instinct as she felt a chill in the air. In a matter of moments she was suddenly focussed and alert, stopped on the spot, tightening her grip on her trusted weapon. She was not alone in the trees, but whatever else was lurking there was nothing she could not easily fight off: provided it did not manage to sneak up on her.

Botan heard a swish of movement and she turned towards it, crying out alarm as something rushed past her from behind, the force of the displaced air causing her to stumble and almost fall over. She managed to regain her balance in time to duck down as something swept over her head. Looking up she saw the silhouette of a giant bat flying against the sky.

"A demon bat," she concluded. "Well mister demon bat, say hello to my anti-demon bat!"

Botan listened carefully to the sounds of the bats around her, waiting for the sound of the larger, heavier creature. There was probably only one demon bat, the others would all be normal bats under its control. All she had to do was take out the demon bat and the others would lose interest and disperse without attacking. She wished that Hiei had not kept her mystic whistle, as it would have been very useful right then for debilitating the demon bat; but she did not have long to dwell on the thought as she heard the sound of something diving at her.

Botan tensed and swung her bat, smiling as it collided with something. Her hit had been a glancing one but it was enough to disorientate her attacker, who fell to the ground, taking the form of the demon bat she had suspected it was. She lifted her bat to take another shot at it, but in the blink of an eye it turned on her and caught her blow in its hands. She whimpered as it hissed at her angrily, and from the corner of her eyes she could see a swarm of bats gathering in the air above them.

"I'm going to drink your blood and then I'm going to eat you up!" the demon bat said, tightening his grip on her bat. "The blood of a human girl is always the sweetest!"

Botan yanked at her bat to try to loosen it from the bat's hold but she was no match for his strength. In desperation she tried to kick at it but her foot fell short of her intended target.

"It's hopeless, you might as well give in to me!" the bat sneered.

Botan tried again to wrestle free her bat, panic starting to set in when she realised that she had no hope of recovering it and the demon bat in front of her was starting to drool as it eyed her over. Realising that she had few other options left she abruptly released her hold of her baseball bat, using the demon bat's temporary confusion to summon her oar and whack it towards the bat's stomach. She was almost as surprised as the demon bat when her oar made a direct and resounding hit, but she did not hesitate on her advantage, hitting it again, causing it to stumble over to the ground, where she whacked it one last time over the head, knocking it out cold.

"Phew!" she said, wiping her sleeve across her brow. "Well that ought to teach you not to be so rude to a lady!"

She stowed her oar and crouched down, recovering her baseball bat from the demon bat's hands. As she stood up again Botan realised that she was being watched, yelping in surprise at the pair of red eyes staring at her in an almost alarmed fashion.

"Hiei!" she gasped, clasping a hand to her chest. "What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping."

"It's hard to sleep when there's a fool screaming at bats nearby," he flatly replied.

"Oopsie!" Botan said, shrugging her shoulders. "Well anyway, I don't think he'll be giving us any more trouble for now."

Hiei looked down at the unconscious demon bat sprawled across the forest floor between them.

"Hn, interesting," he muttered.

"What's that?" Botan asked, stowing her baseball bat.

"I thought you were only capable of defensive manoeuvres," he replied, lifting his eyes to hers. "I thought that thing would have devoured you."

"So you came here to save me from being eaten alive?"

"Hn, no, I came to watch. I was bored."

Botan started to laugh, but when Hiei's face remained stern she soon realised that he had not been joking.

"Now that's not very nice, Hiei," she said solemnly.

He narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing.

"Well I think this creature is the most powerful one here," she continued with a sigh. "If there were any more powerful demons passing through the portal here they probably would have destroyed a weaker demon like this one. And this is a very remote location, not very accessible, and the ground doesn't look disturbed, so I don't think many humans come this way. I'm going to check the next site."

Botan stepped away from the demon bat before looking over expectantly at Hiei.

"Are you coming with me?" she asked.

"What a stupid question," he replied.

"Alrighty then," she said, summoning her oar again and hopping onto it. "Goodbye, Hiei."

Botan took off, steering her oar towards the north before consulting the map again to check the next location she was heading for. The next portal was almost as far away again as the first one was from Genkai's temple, meaning she was facing another journey of around two hours. The next location was near a small town though, so Botan decided that after she had checked it – provided there were no problems – she would be able to stop in the town for lunch.

With that thought she focussed her attention on flying onwards, humming cheerfully to herself as she went.

* * *

Botan checked the next site alone, all the while wondering when it was that she had ended up taking responsibility for the task. She had travelled quite far north and the weather was distinctly colder, so once she had confirmed that there was nothing suspicious at the site she walked to the nearby town and bought a scarf, hat and pair of gloves before finding a pleasant little café to buy lunch from. She ordered two meals for takeaway, carrying them out of the café and along the street to an adjoining residential street that was lined with trees.

"Knock, knock!" she said brightly, rapping her knuckles against the trunk of the nearest tree. "Miso soup or pork noodles?"

She held up her bags with her other hand, looking up into the foliage expectantly. A couple passing her on the street cast her wary looks as though they thought that she had gone mad, seemingly offering meals to a tree.

"I'll unpack them here and you can come down when you're ready," she said when she received no reply.

Humming to herself she sat down at the base of the tree and began unpacking the boxes of food from her carrier bag, placing them in a neat row in front of herself. The scents of her purchases began to permeate the air, and as she finished her task she felt the tree vibrate behind her, and a second later something landed on the ground beside her, snatching up the box of pork noodles in a blur of black and white.

Botan smiled, turning to watch as Hiei sat down at the foot of somebody's garden, scowling at her like a scorned cat.

"Good choice," she said, ignoring his expression.

"Hn," he responded.

Botan shrugged and picked up the cup of soup. From the corner of her eye she saw Hiei open the box a little roughly, almost spilling the contents in the process. Once he had steadied the box in one hand and the chopsticks in his other hand he began eagerly eating, which, she thought, finally answered her question about whether or not he did actually eat.

"So…" she said, tapping a finger against the plastic lid of her cup. "You've been following me since I left the last site."

She peeled back the lid and took a sip before chancing a brief glance at Hiei, who had paused, his cheeks bulging and one hand plunged into the box of noodles.

"I knew you would help us out, you always do!" she said cheerfully.

Botan sipped at her soup again and on the edge of her vision she saw Hiei start to chew. It then occurred to her that he was unable to answer her because his mouth was crammed full of noodles: it was like she was free to say anything to him without the risk of a vicious verbal retort.

"You certainly do like those noodles, don't you?" she commented, avoiding looking directly at him so that he would not see her smirking amusedly. "I suppose you're hungry after recovering from that infection. But hopefully now you've learnt your lesson about licking up blood."

Hiei growled, but the sound was muffled by food.

"Isn't this nice?" Botan said. "You and me, sitting here together, having a meal and just talking. It's like being on a date!"

Botan turned to smile at Hiei with her last remark, but as his eyebrows twisted and his mouth twitched downwards she started to realise what she had just said: and to Hiei of all people.

"Not that we are on a date of course," she quickly added. "Because that would never happen."

Botan gulped down some of her soup, burning the roof of her mouth but glad for the distraction the pain brought her. As she sucked in air through her teeth to cool the burn, she found her mind drifting to the idea of going on a date with Hiei, and exactly what it would entail. Keiko had spoken to her many times about dates she had with Yusuke, and usually they involved going to see a movie, having dinner at a nice restaurant or just going for a walk in a park or on a beach. But, as far as she was aware, Hiei did not care for films, he had just proved that he had no etiquette when it came to eating a meal, and he had proved many times that he preferred running to walking.

Botan wondered then what sort of date a guy like Hiei would take a girl on. Dates were different according to the individual, after all, and surely there was somewhere and something that Hiei considered a suitable venue and activity for a date. Botan almost choked on her soup as an involuntary image of Hiei in a tuxedo ballroom dancing on his own under a spotlight appeared unbidden in her mind. She tried to dismiss it, but he kept spinning around, his arm raised around the space where a partner ought to be, his eyes closed, his nose turned up into the air, looking almost regal but for his wild, spiky hair.

Botan snorted into her hand and only just managed to swallow the contents of her mouth before giggling to herself.

"This is a waste of time, and I'm bored now," Hiei said suddenly, rising to his feet.

Botan cleared her throat and calmed herself before looking up at him. He had discarded the box of noodles in the garden he had been sitting in and he looked determined and a little annoyed: which was the way he usually looked, she thought to herself.

"Would you like some lemonade to wash that down with?" Botan asked, cracking open a can and holding it up towards him.

He glared at her offering as though it was poison, but, having already expected such a response from him, Botan smiled amiably and kept her hand steady.

"It won't bite you, it's just something to drink," she insisted.

"Hn."

He snatched the can from her hand and lifted it towards his mouth.

"But be careful, it is fizzy," she warned him.

Hiei tilted back his head, the can touching his lips and lifting up. In an instant he had dropped his head again and thrown the can at the tree behind Botan. She ducked as it bounced off the bark and landed I the middle of the road, spilling out in a puddle of angry, fizzing white froth. Hiei muttered a curse, wiping his mouth on the back of his bandaged hand before stomping off, leaving Botan sat under the tree, watching him go.

"Oh dear," she sighed.

* * *

"Okay dokay, we'll meet you back at Genkai's!" Botan said into her communicator.

"Hey Botan?" Kuwabara said, the image of him in front of her leaning to one side. "What did you do to Hiei? He doesn't look too happy."

Botan looked over her shoulder, spotting Hiei a short way behind her, his hands stuffed into pockets, his shoulders hunched up to the point that he did not appear to have a neck and his eyes thinned.

"I don't think the weather here agrees with him," she whispered as she turned back to the communicator. "I offered him my gloves, but he refused."

Botan held up her free hand and Kuwabara began laughing so loudly Botan was sure Hiei would be able to hear him.

"I don't think he liked the idea of wearing white gloves with a pink feather trim," Botan added. "Though I think his hands are about the same size as mine, he could easily have worn them. I didn't dare offer him my hat. It's a Hello Kitty head."

Kuwabara began to laugh even louder and Botan sighed in frustration.

"Goodbye, Kuwabara!" she said abruptly, snapping the communicator shut to terminate the link.

She slid the communicator back into her pocket and turned to Hiei, forcing a smile for his benefit. Despite them having separated during lunch, they had somehow ended up together again at the site of the next portal, which was in the far north of Japan, and in the throes of winter, there was a blustery wind that occasionally brought hail with it: and apparently Hiei had a severe disliking for such frigid conditions.

"I have an idea!" Botan said suddenly, smacking a fist into her open palm. "We could make you a little hoodie!"

"What?" Hiei echoed, taking a wary step back from her.

"It's easy! Come here and I'll show you," she offered, holding out her arms towards him.

He eyed her over but did not move. She shook her head and walked boldly up to him, grabbing her hands into his scarf and loosening it about his neck.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Making you a little hoodie!" she said as she adjusted his scarf about his head. "Didn't you know that you lose most of your body heat through your head?"

Botan arranged Hiei's scarf up over the top of his head like a hood before winding the ends around his neck firmly to stop the wind getting in. She then began tucking the ends back into his coat, her hands slowing to a halt and her smile fading.

"…Hiei…?" she muttered.

"What?" he mumbled.

"…You're not wearing a shirt under this coat…"

Botan and Hiei stood for a prolonged and awkward moment, each staring into each other's eyes as if they had been frozen into that position by the bitter wind. Botan was silently thankful that she still had her gloves on, but even with a layer of material between her skin and his, she could still feel the warmth of his body and the intimate topography of his muscular chest against her palms and fingers.

"Well then," she said, her voice a little higher pitched than usual. "That should… Keep you nice and cosy."

She slid her hands out of his coat and grinned nervously.

"And you look just adorable like that!"

"What?" Hiei grunted, frowning at her sternly.

"You look adorable!" she said again. "You look so cute I could… Just…"

Botan's words faded, her mouth hanging open in the form of the next word she had been about to say, the sight of Hiei's widened eyes suddenly reminding her of just who she was talking to. Maybe he did look unbelievably cute with his scarf wrapped around his head and his bandana around his forehead, only his eyes, mouth, reddened nose and cheeks and a few rogue strands of his jet-black hair visible, but he was still Hiei.

"Kuwabara found a shoe," she said mechanically. "He suspects foul play, so we should get going now."

Botan summoned her oar, her mind still reeling at the idea of what she had almost said. She clambered onto her ride with far less finesse than she normally possessed, turning her head from Hiei and willing her oar upwards. She started to move forwards and upwards, only to let out a cry and grab desperately at the handle as she was almost thrown over it. She looked back to see what the problem was, whimpering as she saw a bandaged hand gripping the handle just above the blade of the oar.

"Hiei?" she whispered, frowning at him.

He slowly ran his eyes over her, one corner of his mouth curling upwards as his eyes completed their journey, a self-satisfied smirk firmly in place on his face by the time his eyes met hers again. She tried to ask him why he had stopped her, but she could not make her voice work. With an amused "hn" Hiei yanked her oar back, the sudden force sending her flying off the end of it. She landed on the ground in a crumpled heap, pushing herself up onto all fours and looking about in confusion.

"Oopsie," she muttered as she spotted her hat on the ground a short way ahead of her.

Botan started to crawl towards where her hat had landed, gasping as something suddenly clamped onto one of her shoulders. She cried out in alarm as her shoulder was tugged back forcefully, her entire body following the direction it took. She flipped over in the air and landed on her back with a grunt, her body almost immediately trying to sit up from that position on instinct. She yelped as both her shoulders were pushed roughly back down to the ground, her eyes widening as she saw Hiei crawling over her, his smirk wider than before and his eyes positively feral.

"Silly girl," he said in a low voice. "I can read your thoughts. Or did you forget?"

She shook her head urgently, though her mind was unusually blank at that moment.

"I know what you were about to say," he added.

"Oh…" she whimpered, her lips quivering and her throat constricting, preventing her from answering him properly.

"Say it," he said, his tone almost gentle.

Botan pressed her head against the hard, cold ground, trying in vain to put some distance between herself and Hiei, who seemed to be lowering himself onto her slowly but surely, bringing his face closer and closer to hers with every passing second.

"Say it," he growled through tightly clenched teeth.

"I… I can't!" she wailed. "It doesn't mean anything! It's just… Just a saying! Like, "curiosity killed the cat" or "reap what you sow" or–wait…"

Botan frowned, her eyes wandering away from Hiei, she began chewing on her lip as she considered how ironic her choice of words seemed, since she liked to pull cat faces and she was a reaper herself.

"Say it," Hiei insisted.

"But I didn't mean it, Hiei!" she wailed, meeting his eyes again. "It's just a turn of phrase, I would never actually expect to…"

"Say it!" he barked.

"You look so cute I could just kiss you!" she blurted out, hoping to end the moment as quickly as possible.

Hiei broke into a grin that looked far more fearsome than any of the scowls he had worn in any of the battles Botan had seen him fight in; but she only saw it for a brief moment before he swooped down on her, pressing his lips hard against hers. She moaned and tried to move, but he was pushing down on her so hard she could do little more than lie still and glare at him, all the while wondering if what was happening could even be considered a kiss, since there was nothing romantic or tender about it: he was literally pressing his lips against hers with enough force that she could feel the shape of his teeth through his lips. But just as she beginning to find his actions painful, Hiei lifted his head abruptly, grinning down at her.

"Hn, pathetic," he said.

And in a flash his weight was lifted from her and he was gone from her sight.

Botan slowly eased herself up onto her elbows, a chunk of her powder-blue hair falling loose from its ties and falling over one side of her face.

"…What?" she muttered weakly.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan is called back to spirit world but can't return without the mystic whistle. When she tries to get it back from Hiei both get more than they bargained for. **Chapter 5: The Facts.**


	5. The Facts

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Botan and Hiei worked together to investigate the portals in the north, and after Botan told him he looked cute, Hiei kissed her.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Facts**

"Well it certainly seems to correlate with what we found," Kurama said thoughtfully. "We can't be sure that the portal in the south is the only one where there are problems, but it certainly was obvious, from both sides, that something there was amiss."

"Hey Kuwabara, you actually did something useful," Yusuke joked.

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara responded.

"And you found nothing of interest at all in the northern sites, Hiei?" Kurama asked, lifting his head and looking across the table at Hiei.

There was a long pause before Hiei eventually answered, during which Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged curious looks.

"Nothing relevant to this discussion," he said.

Kuwabara squinted over at Hiei suspiciously upon hearing his reply.

"Hey half-pint, what's up with that look on your face?" he asked. "You look like you're planning something. It better not be some sort of betrayal."

"Hn, you don't know what you're talking about," Hiei scoffed.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Kuwabara does have a point, Hiei," Yusuke said. "Is there anything you want to tell us?"

"There was nothing unusual at the sites I checked," Hiei replied.

Yusuke pulled a face at Hiei's response, but Hiei looked away from him, indicating that he had said all that he intended to.

"And you found nothing that would interest any of the rest of us in the northern sites?" Kurama said, a small smile appearing on his face before he hid it behind one hand.

"Nothing that concerns you, fox," Hiei bluntly replied.

"Well then in that case I think we should continue in the morning, concentrating on the site Kuwabara indicated," Kurama said, lowering his hand to reveal that his face was once more serious.

"Fine, but it's your turn to go with Kuwabara," Yusuke said.

"Fine by me," Kurama said with a nod. "Kuwabara and I will try to find out anything we can from the people who live nearby the site and we will try to arrange accommodation for us all so that we can stay as close by as possible tomorrow night. Yusuke, you go with Hiei to demon world and see what you can find out there."

"Great, now let's eat, I'm starving!" Yusuke said, pushing back his chair and standing up.

"Me too!" Kuwabara agreed. "I can't wait to see what deliciousness the lovely Yukina has made for us tonight!"

Kuwabara and Kurama stood but Hiei remained where he was, banging a fist onto the table to attract their attention back to him.

"Wait," he said sternly. "I can't go back to demon world and start asking questions, it will seem suspicious. As one of the border patrol, I ought to know more about anything suspicious around there than anyone else."

"Yes, that's true," Kurama agreed.

"I should stay here and check things from this side," Hiei finished.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary," Kurama assured him. "You should go back to demon world and take up your role as a guard of the border patrol again. Now that you know where the problem is, you can start concentrating your efforts there, looking out for any suspects working the patrol, perhaps."

Hiei slowly narrowed his eyes, looking both displeased and slightly confused.

"Unless of course you have a burning desire to stay here in the living world and work alongside Kuwabara," Kurama offered.

Hiei turned to Kuwabara at the reference, watching the tall redhead recoil from him in disgust.

"He's very slow, in physical speed and intelligence," Hiei spat, before turning back to Kurama. "Somebody needs to watch over him."

"Don't worry Hiei, Kuwabara and I can manage just fine," Kurama smoothly replied.

"Hn, not likely," Hiei said. "I'll stay here, you go to demon world."

Kurama smiled, a slight gesture that was barely visible, but felt glaringly mocking to Hiei, who glowered back at him indignantly. The moment only ended when Hiei's head suddenly lurched forwards in a loud sneeze.

"Ha, what is it Botan always says?" Kuwabara said. "Oh yeah: achoo, achoo, somebody's talking about you!"

"Shut-up you fool," Hiei warned him.

"Maybe you're still getting over that little cold you had, Hiei," Yusuke suggested.

"I don't get "colds", I'm a demon, you idiot!" Hiei snapped.

"Perhaps Yusuke is right though," Kurama said. "Perhaps it would be best then that you stay here another day."

"Well maybe so," Hiei muttered, pretending not to care.

"You probably want to stay close to Botan," Kurama added, bringing Hiei to attention. "She is a good master of healing powers and very knowledgeable about antidotes."

"Hn, I don't need such sympathies."

Kurama shrugged, but Hiei sneezed again, and Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"Kurama, you're coming with me," he said. "Hiei, you stay here with Kuwabara."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Kuwabara complained. "You know that little guy creeps me out!"

"Deal with it!" Yusuke replied unsympathetically.

Kuwabara groaned and Hiei sneezed again.

* * *

"I'm so glad you came," Botan said, smiling brightly.

"I was going to come a lot sooner when I heard you were all here, but I decided to wait until the weekend," Keiko replied, sitting down on the porch next to Botan. "I'm not about to let Yusuke disappear on another adventure without me again!"

"Of course not!" Botan said.

"And it's really nice to be out here, it's so peaceful," Keiko added. "It's like a little holiday for me."

Botan nodded her agreement.

"Everything still good in the spirit world?" Keiko asked.

"Same as always!" Botan replied.

"How's Lord Koenma?"

"Oh, well, he's the same as always too!"

"Is he still treating you alright?"

"That depends on his mood…"

"I see… Okay Botan, you've been stirring that tea for about twenty minutes now, are you sure you're alright?"

"What?"

Botan lifted the spoon from her tea, touching her other hand against the side of the mug, finding it surprisingly cool to the touch.

"Oh my…" she muttered.

"So, is everything okay?" Keiko asked her. "If it's something about what Yusuke and the others are doing, I'd like you to tell me."

"Oh no, it's not that at all," Botan assured her, pouring her cold tea out onto the lawn by her feet. "It's just… Something very strange happened to me earlier today and I'm not quite sure I understand it."

"Oh?"

"It's not important at all though!"

Botan grinned, waving her hands in the air in front of her face to deter Keiko from questioning her any further on the matter, but Keiko looked less than convinced.

"I know Yusuke will be fighting in the next demon world tournament, and it's not far away now," she said slowly. "But if he's in some sort of danger now that means he might not even make it to the next tournament, I'd like you to tell me about it."

Botan shook her head.

"No, Yusuke is just checking out some unexplained disappearances," she said. "People have been vanishing from the living world in the region of some of the known portals to demon world, and Lord Koenma thinks that maybe the people are passing through the portals and being held hostage on the other side. He just wants to make sure the people are returned safely before the tournament starts, or else there could be chaos."

"But there aren't so many demons looking to take over the living world now, right?" Keiko asked.

"Not so many, but there will always be a few bad eggs," Botan replied.

"But you're not really worried about that."

"Well Lord Koenma hasn't told me everything, he wouldn't let me stay when he was giving his debriefing to the rest of the team, but I don't think the situation is much more complicated than the facts I already know about."

"So then what is bothering you? And don't try to hide it like you usually do."

Botan faltered slightly before laughing nervously.

"Oh silly, there's nothing bothering me at all!" she lied.

"Oh come on, Botan!" Keiko moaned. "Tell me. It might help take my mind off of worrying about Yusuke."

Botan pulled a face but Keiko ignored it and Botan found herself running out of excuses and distractions.

"Well, I'm just a little confused about what happened this afternoon," she confessed.

"What happened this afternoon?" Keiko pressed, impatience creeping into her tone.

"I was working with Hiei."

"Well that definitely is confusing."

Botan began drawing circles on the panelling at her side with her finger, taking too long to notice that Keiko was giving her a withering look.

"I was confused," Botan said when she caught Keiko's thinned eyes watching her. "I thought he would have chosen to work with Kurama, or maybe even Yusuke."

"He chose to work with you?" Keiko asked, her expression softening. "Oh, well that really is weird I suppose."

"Yes, I'm not even sure how we ended up together," Botan said, touching a finger to her mouth and rolling her eyes upwards in thought. "I think it had something to do with him not wanting to leave Kuwabara and Yukina alone together, but then before I knew it, we were alone together checking the sites. It was very odd, I can't say that I find Hiei easy to talk to since I've only ever really spoken to him when I've had to, and he's not really one for conversation."

"He's a bit weird," Keiko agreed. "He's never really seemed like part of the group, you know? Like he could turn on us at any time… But Yusuke said it's just an act he puts on. He thinks Hiei is just as trustworthy as Kurama or Kuwabara, because he has some sort of honour code."

"Oh I do trust him. I trust him to help us and to fight for us…"

"But?"

"Well, it's very confusing. You see, this afternoon, when we were alone together, I think Hiei might have kissed me."

Keiko's face dropped, her eyes growing round as she stared at Botan in a mixture of awe and disbelief; but Botan remained blissfully ignorant, preoccupying herself by drawing little circles with her finger on the step at her side.

"Botan?" Keiko said carefully. "How is it possible to be confused about something like that? Either he did kiss you or he didn't kiss you, so which is it?"

"Oh, I'm really not sure," Botan said, lifting her head to look at Keiko. "It was like a kiss but it was very scary and unpleasant, which isn't so much like a kiss, so I can't really be sure one way or the other."

"Okay…" Keiko said slowly, resisting the urge to grab Botan and shake her in the hope of bringing her to her senses. "Tell me how it happened. Maybe that way we can figure out what it actually was."

"Well it all started when I said that I thought he looked really cute and that I just wanted to kiss him."

"You did what?"

Keiko squeaked out her question so loudly that her voice echoed off the walls of the temple and sent a small flock of birds into the air from the nearby trees. Her shock only multiplied when she saw that Botan still looked unconcerned by her choice of words and the situation she was describing.

"He was cold you see," Botan continued, apparently unaffected by Keiko's horror. "So I made a little hoodie for him from his scarf. Once I was finished, he looked positively adorable, so I told him that."

"You told Hiei that he looked adorable?" Keiko said, her tone flat.

"Yes," Botan confirmed with a nod of her head.

"Hiei?" Keiko repeated.

"Yes."

"The same guy who has a dragon in his arm that kills people and sends them into a dimension of eternal suffering?"

"Yes."

"The same guy who hates humans, and kidnapped me and tried to turn me into a mindless demon slave?"

"Yes."

"The same guy who threatens to kill you all the time?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Huh."

Keiko looked up at the sky for several seconds, if only to confirm that it was still blue and that she was still on the planet Earth.

"And then you said that you wanted to kiss him…" she said slowly, lowering her eyes again to the ditzy ferry girl at her side.

"I didn't actually say it out loud, but he can read minds, so he knew that I was thinking it," Botan replied. "And then he made me say it out loud and then he sort of kissed me."

Keiko paused again, allowing herself to picture what Botan had just described in her mind: Hiei with his white scarf wrapped over his head like a hood, Botan telling him he looked "adorable", Hiei making her admit that she wanted to kiss him and then Hiei kissing Botan. As she reached the last part she started to think that it had probably not happened the way she was imagining it, her mind focussing more and more on the logistical impossibility of Hiei forcing a kiss onto Botan, who was a good ten inches taller than him.

"You mean you kissed him, right?" she asked.

"Oh no, I wasn't kissing at all," Botan replied. "That's why I'm not sure if it actually counts as a kiss, since I didn't actually kiss him back."

"Hm…"

Keiko pulled a face at Botan, silently wondering if she ought to invite her to stay with her for a week. Perhaps exposure to a dorm full of college girls would give Botan the wake up call she apparently needed, Keiko mused.

"So he forced himself on you?" she asked, deciding that a direct approach was probably best.

"That makes it sound quite terrible, Keiko," Botan replied, looking suddenly worried. "Hiei has a great sense of honour, you shouldn't say things like that about him."

Keiko resisted the urge to yell, instead deciding to just ignore Botan's response entirely.

"How did he manage to force himself on you, you're twice his size?" she asked flatly.

"It was really quite silly actually," Botan began. "It was… Well he just reached out and grabbed a hold of my–"

Botan stopped abruptly as the door behind them slid open sharply. Both girls turned to see Yusuke and Kurama exiting the temple. Yusuke did a distinct double-take at Keiko before laughing nervously.

"Hey you!" he said awkwardly. "How's it going?"

"Fine," Keiko replied, nodding her head.

"Listen, I know I said we could spend some time together this weekend, but there's something I really have to do tomorrow," he said.

"That's fine, we can do it another time," she replied dismissively.

Yusuke's face dropped.

"You're not mad at me?" he asked.

"No, it's fine," she insisted.

"Oh, I get it!" he cried. "You're sulking with me, aren't you?"

"No, really, it's fine Yusuke."

Yusuke's face shifted again, creasing in anger.

"Damn it, Keiko!" he snapped. "This is really important!"

"I know, and I'm fine with it," she snapped back.

They glared at each other angrily for several seconds before Keiko sighed and rolled her eyes. She stood up and grabbed Yusuke's arm, dragging him far enough away from Botan and Kurama that she could safely talk to him without the danger of being overheard.

"Botan was just telling me something interesting," she whispered. "I want to hear what she has to say, so I'll overlook the fact that you've been working for spirit world again all week and didn't even call to let me know what was happening!"

Yusuke glanced over his shoulder at Botan before grinning at Keiko and leaning closer to her.

"Hey, ask her about Hiei," he whispered. "The second day here, Kuwabara heard them in a bedroom together and they were… Y'know…"

Keiko's jaw dropped, but this only made Yusuke's grin widen.

"Yeah!" he said, nodding and winking.

"You idiot!" Keiko yelled, slapping him over the back of the head. "No matter what you do, you never change, Yusuke Urameshi! After all this time, you're still a pervert!"

Yusuke began protesting his innocence and Keiko began projecting his guilt, their voices soon becoming a garbled mess of yells and cries that upset more of the nearby birdlife. Behind them Kurama turned to Botan, his face blank, his manner unaffected by the chaos in front of them, despite Botan being on her feet, her fists clenched in front of her and her expression rapidly switching between alarmed and entertained as she watched the verbal dispute.

"It was my plan to find a hotel for us to stay in nearer the portal," Kurama said to Botan. "Since I will not be in this world tomorrow, can you do that duty for me?"

"Hm, what?" Botan responded, tearing her attention away from Yusuke and Keiko with a great effort.

"Tomorrow, when you go back to the site in the south with Kuwabara, could you find a hotel for us all?" Kurama asked. "We'll need four rooms."

"Four rooms?" Botan echoed, her attention fully on Kurama then. "But there are seven of us!"

"Yukina will be staying here and I don't think Keiko should be coming with us," he replied. "If she decides to come on her own that's fine, but let her make that decision and let her make the arrangements. At the moment this only concerns the four of us."

"Alrighty! Do that's four rooms: one for you, one for Yusuke, one for Kuwabara and one for me!"

"No, you're not coming with us, Botan."

Botan glared at Kurama but he slowly shook his head.

"You should go back to spirit world, I'm sure Lord Koenma is missing you," he said gently.

"But I am a part of this team!" Botan complained.

"Yes, and you are more use to us safely back in spirit world than risking your life on the front line, so to speak."

Botan moaned and hung her head, feeling thoroughly rejected and utterly useless.

"Take heart, Botan," he said kindly, touching a hand to her shoulder. "You've been a great help to us so far, and perhaps we will need you again later on."

Botan lifted her pink eyes to his, pouting slightly in the hope of appealing to him in his apparent moment of kindness.

"Well alrighty, I suppose," she reluctantly agreed. "But only because you asked so nicely, Kurama."

Kurama smiled so warmly that Botan could not stop herself from smiling back at him. They remained like that for several blissful seconds, not even the sounds of Yusuke and Keiko shrieking at each other could ruin the moment.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?" a voice spat at them suddenly.

They both turned, finding Hiei standing in the doorway glaring at them angrily.

"Just a pleasant moment shared watching the sunset," Kurama replied.

Botan frowned at him curiously, but Kurama kept his eyes on Hiei.

"Hn, well that's revoltingly human," Hiei sneered.

"Was there a reason you came out here?" Kurama asked him.

"Yukina and the lummox are serving dinner," he flatly replied.

"Alright, food!" Yusuke cheered, somehow having managed to hear Hiei's words despite the distance between them.

"Then let's eat," Kurama said, a hint of a smirk creeping onto his face. "Botan, shall we?"

Botan stared up at him in confusion as he offered her his arm. It was unlike Kurama to behave in such a way, and a glance at Hiei told her that there was apparently far more going on than she realised, as Hiei looked positively irate and about ready to kill as he glared up at Kurama.

"Alrighty…" she said slowly, linking her arm through Kurama's.

"Excuse me, Hiei," Kurama said, stepping past Hiei and guiding Botan with him.

Botan continued to look up at Kurama in confusion as he led her back indoors and towards the dining area. He did not look at her or speak to her, only pulling his arm from hers as they reached the table, whereupon he took a seat, ignoring her entirely. Botan sat down opposite him, still watching him expectantly, her attention only wavering when she felt a gust of air at her side as someone sat down hard next to her.

"Hiei!" she blurted out as she turned to him.

"Hn," he responded, his eyes fixed on Kurama.

"Well, isn't this nice!" Botan said as the others began sitting around the table. "All of us together like this! It's such a pity Shizuru and Lord Koenma could not have been here too."

"I haven't told my sister about any of this," Kuwabara said quietly.

"Really?" Keiko echoed. "But why not?"

"I didn't think it was gonna be a big deal," he replied with a shrug.

"Typical," Yusuke muttered. "You're still an idiot."

"Don't start fighting over dinner, Yusuke," Keiko warned him.

But despite Keiko's wishes, Yusuke and Kuwabara began arguing, only stopping when Yusuke threw a piece of sushi at Kuwabara, who immediately became humbled and began apologising to Yukina for spoiling her efforts. Yusuke managed to sneak in one last remark about Kuwabara being whipped, but he too became subdued when Yukina turned innocently to him and asked him what that term actually meant.

After that, dinner passed quite uneventfully, and before long Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama had moved into another room and started a game of cards, Yukina and Keiko had gone outside to feed and groom Puu and Botan had wandered down to the beach to watch the last of the sunset and to report in to Koenma.

"Ah, Botan!" Koenma greeted her through her communicator. "How is everything?"

"Good, Sir," she replied. "Tomorrow we are going to concentrate on the area Kuwabara discovered."

"And not before time," Koenma replied. "Every day the preliminaries for the next demon world tournament draw closer, we can't afford to mess about."

"I understand, Sir," Botan said with a nod. "I'm going to find a hotel for everyone to stay in by the site."

"Good work. And you'll return here as soon as you're done."

"Wh-what?"

"Well you've done all you can for now Botan, I need you back here. There are always souls to ferry, and I think Ayame could use a holiday."

Botan fought off the urge to pout and sulk, but found it impossible to smile any more.

"I wanted to stay here and help," she said quietly.

"You've been very helpful, but you'd be more helpful now if you came back to spirit world. I'd like you to come back here right now, but I'll let you stay long enough to help everyone find a place to stay tomorrow."

"Alright Sir."

"Enjoy your last night there, Botan."

"Thanks, Sir. Goodnight."

"Oh, Botan, wait! Just one more thing before you go!"

"Yes?"

Botan brightened then, hoping that perhaps Koenma had just thought of a reason for her to stay with the gang for a little longer, to be a part of the action like she wanted to be.

"Do you have the mystic whistle? I can't find it around here anywhere!"

Botan's smile vanished and the colour drained from her face.

"The ogre said you had it last," Koenma added.

"Um…" Botan began nervously. "I did have it."

"Excellent!" Koenma cheered. "Be sure to bring it back with you. Goodnight, Botan!"

Koenma's face disappeared in a flicker of static and Botan was left staring at a black circle that was slightly reflective, showing her a translucent image of her own face frowning back at her.

"Oh dear," she groaned, snapping the communicator shut. "What am I going to do now?"

Botan stuffed the communicator back into her jean pocket before huddling her arms around herself. The sun had almost set, and the onslaught of nightfall had caused the air to become substantially cooler, making her regret her decision to leave her coat back at the temple. After spending time in the far north of the country where it had been very cold and then flying all the way back to Genkai's from the location, up high in the sky where the air was thinner and cooler, she had felt too hot back at Genkai's, so Botan had discarded her coat and her shirt, leaving herself dressed in only her jeans and a loose vest that was slightly too big for her, the straps hanging close to the edges of her shoulders and occasionally slipping down the tops of her arms altogether. The journey back to the temple was not a short one, and through the forest in the cold and dark it could be quite a daunting one: but of course Botan had her oar to fly back on, so she decided she would stay until the stars came out.

But just as she was beginning to relax, starting to forget about the mystic whistle and the increasing cold, Botan began to feel that she was being watched. She spun around, more surprised than she would ever admit to at who she found standing a short way behind her watching her with an amused smirk.

"Hiei!" she gasped.

"Hn, idiot," he replied.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was bored," he said with a small shrug. "So I came here to ask you a question."

Botan gulped hard, her eyes growing wide. She did not like the direction the conversation appeared to be heading, but she tried not to think the worst: perhaps Hiei had come to return the whistle to her.

"What did you mean when you said: "if you lose the highs at least you're spared the lows"?" he asked.

Botan could not stop her face from contorting in surprise.

"Hiei, I didn't think you ever listened to anything I said, much less remembered any of it!" she blurted out.

"Hn, don't flatter yourself, woman," he sneered, turning his head to one side and sticking his nose up in the air.

"But… I said that to you three days ago. If you didn't understand, why didn't you ask me then?"

Hiei's eyes shifted to watch her through a sideward glance that fell somewhere between contempt and curiosity.

"I just meant that I think you don't tell Yukina who you are because you are afraid of what she will think of you," Botan confessed.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" he snapped, turning his head to glare directly at her.

"I know you're not afraid of any opponent, but maybe you are afraid of what Yukina represents."

"Don't get cryptic with me, it doesn't suit an idiot like you."

Botan growled, bunching her fists at her sides.

"You don't tell Yukina that you are her brother because you are afraid that she will reject you, just like your mother rejected you!"

The moment the word "mother" left Botan's mouth she saw Hiei's expression falter, and by the time she had finished her sentence she saw his lip curl and anger flashing across his eyes. She realised that she had over-stepped the mark and readied herself to summon her oar should his anger turn to violence – which of course it usually did with Hiei.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he said quietly, his voice barely reaching her, but the menace clear in his tone. "You know nothing about me."

"I know that Yukina is an ice maiden," Botan replied. "And as an assistant to a spirit detective, I know a few things about demon world culture. I know that the ice maidens only ever have female offspring, and a male child indicates an… Indicates that the mother had an affair with another demon. And I know that any such child is born male, cruel, violent and a fire demon, and must be banished from the ice village at birth."

Botan paused the swallow and take a few breaths to try to calm her mounting fear.

"From the look on your face, I think you were one of those children," she added. "Yukina was very brave to leave the village on her own, to defy the wishes of her friends and family, to walk out on everything she had ever known to search for you, and I just think that you are being incredibly selfish by not letting her find you."

Botan removed the hiruiseki from around her neck with shaking hands, thrusting them out in front of herself.

"And to take these with you, you are mocking her!" she said. "Does it make you feel superior to keep secrets from an innocent girl who gave up everything for you?"

Botan was shocked that Hiei had not removed her head yet, but she was even more amazed that she had actually spoken those words. She had become a close friend of Yukina over the four years she had known her and everything she had said to Hiei was how she genuinely felt about their situation.

"Only you can tell her the truth," she said. "And I hope that one day you do."

Botan crouched down and made to place the stones on the ground, her intention being to leave them there and flee before Hiei came to his senses and attacked her: but she hesitated to release the chains as she thought about Koenma reminding her to bring back the whistle, which was still – as far as she aware – in Hiei's coat pocket.

"It's really none of your business," Hiei said quietly.

Botan slowly lifted her head, looking across the darkening beach at him expectantly.

"How and when I chose to tell Yukina has nothing to do with you, so forget about it," he added.

Botan slowly lifted the chains again and hung them around her neck, rising smoothly to her feet once more.

"Yukina is a friend," she told him. "She gave up a lot to find you, and although she doesn't show it, I know that it really hurts her to not know if you are even still alive."

"She is an innocent, I am not," Hiei flatly replied. "Maybe I do her a kindness by protecting her from knowing the truth."

"With all due respect, it's not really your decision to make," Botan said, feeling brave enough to push him a little further. "You wanted to find her and you were allowed to, now she wants to find you, and you won't let her."

"Those women from the ice village, they live a sheltered existence with no violence, no crime and no wars. Crime was a way of life for me and I live to fight. She wouldn't understand. It would upset her more than not knowing at all. There is bliss in ignorance. Maybe that is why a fool like you always smiles."

"You don't know that she wouldn't understand until you tell her. But I do know that she is a loving person, and she loves her brother, she doesn't care who he is. And although she doesn't know you very well, she does like you. I think she'd be delighted to know that you are the brother she has been looking for all this time."

"Love is an illusion. A worthless and wasted ideal."

Botan frowned at him, her anger spiking and logic leaving her.

"Love is very important!" she said sternly.

"Love is nothing," Hiei replied. "Nothing but a word invented by humans."

"Nonsense!" Botan cried. "Love is a very powerful and very important thing!"

"That is just what humans believe," he said. "They are fooling themselves. That way of life doesn't work for them, and it certainly doesn't work for anyone in demon world."

"Did you just come here to torment me?" she snapped.

"Love isn't important, strength is."

"Love is more important."

"Strength is more important. The strong fight and the weak are protected, that is the real way of life, love has nothing to do with it. Without the strong who stand up and fight, there would be no one to protect the weak. That is the proper way of things."

"The "proper way of things"? I see, so the "proper way" is to just be cold and uncaring, to shut out all your emotions and everyone around you?"

Hiei looked a little taken aback by Botan's words, and so she capitalised on her advantage.

"Your "proper way" only seems right to you because it's the only way you've ever known," she continued. "Maybe if you spent less time fighting, maybe if you let somebody love you, maybe if you even tried to understand the human way of life, then maybe you would understand that there are much bigger and better things to live for… But you'll probably never understand. You've worked so hard to shut love out of your life, you'll probably never find any."

Botan folded her arms and turned her head from Hiei, feeling satisfied that she had made her point.

"Hn, thank you."

Botan turned back to Hiei abruptly, her jaw dropping shamelessly in shock at hearing words she had never expected Hiei to ever say to her.

"This little discussion has been very helpful to me," he said, slowly walking towards her. "You've helped me to see the reason why humans are so pathetic and so weak."

"Love doesn't make people weak!" Botan argued. "Look at Yusuke: he loves and is loved, and I bet he's stronger than you!"

"Idiot!" Hiei cursed, stopping short a few feet away from her. "Love isn't even a tangible thing! A weak fool like you could not survive without strong people like me to clean up the messes you get yourself into!"

"I'm very sorry you feel that way," Botan spat out.

"You should go back to the temple and make yourself useful there."

"Gladly."

Botan stomped past Hiei, feeling infuriated at his stubborn cold-heartedness, but strangely pleased, as she had found telling him exactly how she felt about him hiding his identity from Yukina oddly cathartic. As she passed him, she saw Hiei smirk and heard him let out a quiet "hn"; and an instant later she realised why as one of her feet caught in his and she tripped helplessly forwards, falling down face-first into the sand.

"What was that for?" she yelled, rolling onto her back to glare up at him.

"You did what you wanted to, now it's my turn," he replied.

"What do you mean?" she yelped, shuffling back nervously as he turned on her. "Hiei?"

Botan screamed out as he dropped onto her, but her cry was cut short as she saw his face looming towards hers and she snapped her jaws shut on instinct. She reached up a hand to push his mouth away from hers but her effortlessly caught her wrist and pinned her down, closing the gap between them. Botan growled and glared angrily at Hiei as he again pressed his mouth against hers in what was anything but an affectionate gesture. Her first thoughts were that his actions were painful and almost humiliating, but her mind was quickly overcome by the idea that Hiei was single-handedly ruining her romantic ideas about tender kisses on beaches by a setting sun. In fact, she thought bitterly, Hiei was putting her off ever kissing anyone ever again.

He released her wrist and she growled again, grabbing her hands into his coat and pushing with all she was worth to try to get him off of her. Her efforts were of course in vain, but she felt better fighting back than lying still and letting him mistreat her so, and so she continued to push until her arms and shoulders ached. Suddenly Hiei's hands were in her hair, pulling at it roughly, loosening it from its ties. She kicked a leg up into the air but did not come close to hitting him. One of his hands clawed up the back of her skull, lifting her head slightly, and the other grabbed at the back of her neck, the feeling of his fingers against the sensitive skin on the nape of her neck making her falter slightly.

They both paused and Botan saw Hiei's eyes open and fix onto hers. She made a noise in the back of her throat but he did not break contact, keeping his mouth on hers and keeping one fist bunched into her hair. His other hand shivered a little against her neck, the sensation surprisingly tender compared to his other actions, making her back arch slightly, bringing her body closer to his. Hiei grunted and frowned at her, seemingly confused. Botan decided to take advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration and she pushed harder at him in the hope of getting herself free of him to make her escape: but at she pushed his face hardened again and his hand clawed roughly at her skin before tearing upwards, pulling a few strands of hair from the base of her scalp with it.

Botan cried out as he lifted his head from her and removed his hands, allowing her to drop to the sand as he leapt back up to his feet. She pushed herself up onto her elbows to eye him questioningly but he merely grinned at her, holding up one hand to reveal that he had managed to retrieve the hiruiseki from around her neck. She gasped, sitting up fully and feeling around her neck as though expecting to somehow still find them there even though she already knew that her actions made no sense.

"Silly girl," he sneered. "You're so easily distracted with ideas of romance, I almost had fun taking these back from you."

"H-Hey!" she protested. "That was a horrible thing to do!"

"I'm a horrible bastard," he flatly replied, lowering the chains over his head.

"The least you could do is give me back my mystic whistle, Hiei!" she said.

Hiei tucked the stones down the front of his coat before reaching into his pocket and retrieving the whistle in question. He looked down at it with a small smile before moving his eyes to hers.

"You want this?" he asked.

"You know I do!" she retorted indignantly.

"Then learn a lesson from me: when you want something, you have to do whatever it takes to get it back."

"…What?"

"Hn."

"Hiei!"

Botan scrambled to her feet as Hiei took off, running across the beach and in a streak of black and white.

"Hiei, get back here!" she screamed, summoning her oar. "Hiei!"

She leapt onto her oar and took off after him, already knowing that he was too far ahead for her to have any hopes of catching him, but feeling too irrational to do anything other than chase regardless of the odds being so hopelessly stacked against her.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan, Hiei and Kuwabara have to work together, but when Botan has an accident things become complicated for all three of them. **Chapter 6: The Snake**.


	6. The Snake

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Hiei took back his hiruiseki from Botan by distracting her with a kiss, but took off before she could get her whistle back.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: The Snake**

"Botan!"

Botan was furious. She had chased Hiei until Yusuke had sent Puu up into the air to bring her down by force, since her circling the temple and yelling out angrily had been keeping the others awake. She had come back begrudgingly, offered no explanation to anyone for her foul mood or actions, instead taking herself straight to bed, where she had fallen asleep remarkably quickly, only to sink into a series of nightmares about an arrogant little fire demon who was mocking her relentlessly.

"Botan!"

In her current nightmare, she was standing in front of Koenma's desk, trying to explain to him that she had lost the mystic whistle, and all the while Hiei was standing behind Koenma's chair laughing at her.

"Botan!"

"Get off of me!" she yelled, hitting out an arm blindly.

Botan heard a cry and a thud and suddenly she was very awake. Sitting up in her bed she saw Yukina lying on the floor at her side, staring up at her with wide, terrified eyes.

"Yukina!" she gasped. "Oh my goodness Yukina, I am so sorry!"

Botan nimbly leapt out of her bed and helped Yukina to her feet, hurriedly checking her over.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine," Yukina assured her. "But I was so worried about you, Botan! You were having the most terrible nightmares!"

"Yes, well…" Botan sighed.

"You always talk in your sleep, but you sounded like you were in pain, and I couldn't bear it!"

Botan opened her mouth to tell Yukina that her cries had been justified given the nature of her nightmares, but the sound of something tapping against the ground brought her attention sharply downwards and she saw a small glittering hiruiseki by her foot.

"Yukina…" she said, lifting her eyes back to Yukina's face, which was twisted with worry, her eyes glistening with the threat of more tears. "Oh please don't cry!"

Botan hurriedly pulled her into a hug, suddenly so overcome with guilt that she forgot all about her anger.

"I don't like to see you suffering like that," Yukina said, her voice muffled in Botan's vest.

"It was just a dream," Botan said firmly. "I'm fine. Really I am."

"I like it when you talk in your sleep, but this time it was horrible."

Botan gently took Yukina's shoulders in her hands and pushed her back far enough to look her in the eye.

"Did you say I always talk in my sleep?" she asked.

Yukina sniffed and nodded.

"Every night," she confirmed. "You always have."

"Really?" Botan echoed. "That is strange, because I hardly ever remember the things I dream about. I am aware that I dream, but I forget by the time I wake up in the morning. What sort of things do I speak about?"

"Oh, you only ever speak about one thing," Yukina replied.

"And what's that?"

"You don't know?"

"No. I don't remember my dreams."

"Well, I thought maybe you dreamt the same thing all the time because you think the same thing all the time. Dreams are just a part of our subconscious, right?"

Botan nodded, feeling almost afraid to learn just what it was that she apparently dreamt about night after night.

"You always speak about Mister Hiei," Yukina said.

"No I don't!" Botan immediately snapped back at her.

"Yes you do," Yukina weakly replied.

"No!"

The two stood exchanging wary and confused looks before Botan eventually began to soften.

"I-I do?" she asked quietly.

Yukina nodded.

"And… And what sort of things do I say about Mister Hiei?" she asked.

Inside her head Botan had already decided that her dreams about Hiei could only be bad. She could remember dreaming about him two or three times in the past, and each time it had been him chasing after her with a dangerous glint in his eye. She had always been afraid of him, she only hoped that she had not passed that fear onto Yukina.

"Well sometimes you just say his name," Yukina eventually answered. "But other times you seem really worried that he's hurt."

Botan frowned, at first surprised by what Yukina had said. But, as she gave the matter more thought, she realised that Hiei had been on her mind a lot since the group had gathered to fight Sensui. He had first starting consuming her thoughts when she had been forced to lift the restrictions spirit world had placed on him for his crimes. She had not then – and even now did not have – the authority to release prisoners, least of all those guilty of theft of the some of the most powerful treasures of spirit world and the murder of several spirit world ogres. She had been furious that he had driven her to taking such an extreme measure just for the sake of getting his help to free Yusuke, only for him to then abandon them in a sulk because Koenma had announced that he was only a lower B-Class demon.

But despite the circumstances, that was when Botan had begun thinking about Hiei, and, as she thought about it now, she had not really stopped thinking about him since. When he had disappeared in that famous sulk she had constantly wondered where he was and what he was doing, when he had returned she had been relieved and started to see him as Yusuke did: the aloof and moody one who liked to talk about hating them all but would always ultimately be their best ally. Her thoughts had only deepened when she had seen him fight Mukuro during the demon world tournament. She had never been so captivated by anything before or since: just as Koenma had said, it was like the two were communicating through their violence. It was both terrible and beautiful in equal measures, like poetry in motion.

"Well, you know Hiei!" she said, forcing a smile. "He fights differently to the others. He uses his entire body like a weapon, and he doesn't care how badly he gets hurt. The others are more strategic and defensive than Hiei in battle. Hiei just fights to win, even if victory will cost him his life, he doesn't care."

"Mister Hiei is very brave," Yukina replied.

Botan nodded, though she was starting to feel conflicted, and soon the only thing her mind could focus on was the look on Kurama's face when he had assumed that Hiei had given her the hiruiseki as a sign of his love.

"We should go back to bed now," she said numbly. "I'll try not to have any more nightmares!"

Yukina nodded and made her way over to her own bed. Botan crawled back into her bed and settled down, smiling at Yukina as she bid her goodnight before closing her eyes. Botan kept her eyes open a little longer, looking down at the single hiruiseki stone lying on the floor between them, all the while wondering if Hiei had just kissed her to get the stones back from her earlier that night. After all, there were plenty of other ways he could have taken them, and if the kiss was just a ruse, why had he not taken them the first time he had kissed her? And why did he always hesitate when he touched her?

Botan briefly wondered if she ought to approach recovering the mystic whistle with the same attitude Hiei had adopted: maybe if she thrust herself upon him and kissed him in an almost brutal fashion she could slip her hand into his pocket and recover the whistle without him stopping her.

Botan paused, a voice screaming inside her head, asking her if she had gone insane. She could not imagine anything more terrifying than thrusting herself onto Hiei and kissing him forcefully. The best thing that could come out of such a rash action would be that he would kill her, she decided. The worst thing was not even worth thinking about, as it was certain to only lead to even more vivid nightmares than she had already suffered that night.

* * *

The next morning Keiko agreed that she would wait at Genkai's temple with Yukina whilst the others set out. Yusuke and Kurama left first, followed shortly by Kuwabara and Botan. Kuwabara strode through the temple confidently, but Botan's face was creased with concern as she hurried after him, trying to keep pace with his long legs.

"Kuwabara," she said as they neared the front door. "We need to find Hiei. I haven't seen him since last night. Did he even come back to the temple?"

"Nah," Kuwabara casually replied. "He's probably up a tree somewhere."

"But…"

Botan sighed in defeat, hurrying on after Kuwabara. Together they left the temple, finding that it was cooler outside than it had been the day before, and a strong wind was howling around the grounds, with evidence that it had been far stronger during the night before.

Kuwabara cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "Hey pipsqueak!"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Kuwabara," Botan quietly warned him.

"Come on, ya little shrimp!" Kuwabara called, ignoring Botan entirely. "Don't go leaving us short-handed again!"

He laughed to himself and jabbed an elbow at Botan, who slapped it away.

"Hey Botan, I must have got the short straw today, I have to work with Hiei!" he said loudly.

"Kuwabara, stop that at once!" Botan hissed, waving a fist at him threateningly.

"Hey Hiei! What was your favourite dessert as a kid? Shortcake?"

"Kuwabara!" Botan snarled, punching his arm. "That's no way to talk to a friend!"

"He's not my friend," Kuwabara replied with a shrug. "And besides, he never comes when we ask nicely, but the minute you insult him he's right there, ready to kick your ass."

Botan opened her mouth to argue, but she found herself unable to fault Kuwabara's logic.

"Hey Hiei!" Kuwabara yelled. "Are you sure you're big enough to be out on your own?"

Kuwabara grunted as he was knocked forwards onto his knees. Botan turned sharply, seeing Hiei land at her side a little harder than he usually did, his eyes wide and glaring at Kuwabara.

"You're too noisy," he spat. "Your verbal ejaculations bore me."

"…What?" Kuwabara muttered, getting to his feet and turning to Hiei.

"I don't want to be stuck with you any more than you wanted to be stuck with me," Hiei replied. "Let's just get this over and done with."

"Right, the next bus is in about an hour," Kuwabara said.

"Bus?" Hiei snapped.

"You can ride with me, Kuwabara," Botan quickly interrupted.

Hiei turned to her and looked her over critically.

"On my oar," she added, summoning her oar and pointing at it to indicate her point.

She climbed on and beckoned Kuwabara to join her.

"Hop on," she said.

"Um, okay," Kuwabara responded.

The oar dipped a little as his weight caught on it behind Botan and she had to adjust her energy to compensate for the additional burden. Hiei muttered something, but he turned his head as he spoke and so Botan did not clearly hear what he said.

"Ah shut up, half-pint!" Kuwabara snapped at him. "You're just jealous."

Hiei's head snapped around and he glared at Kuwabara. Botan glanced back and forth between the two, unsure which was glaring more menacingly, the demon or the human.

"Alrighty then, let's get going!" she said, hoping to break the tension.

"Fine by me," Kuwabara agreed.

"Hn," Hiei grunted, before launching himself off at his unusual, incomprehensible speed.

"What a cheerful soul he is," Botan muttered as she rose into the air.

"I think he's angry because I get to ride with you, Botan," Kuwabara said to her.

"Really?" she asked, only semi-interested in Kuwabara's words. "I can't imagine why."

"Maybe because you're his girlfriend and he's the jealous sort."

A few seconds of screaming and cracking tree branches later, Botan pulled herself up from the ground, turning to find Kuwabara lying in a tangled heap of limbs by the base of a tree. She plucked a stray twig from her hair and cleared her throat awkwardly before summoning her oar again.

"What the hell just happened?" Kuwabara wailed as she held out a hand towards him.

"You fell off," she lied. "You need to concentrate to keep your balance!"

He put his hand into hers and she pulled him to his feet, ignoring the way he was glaring at her.

"And just so that you know, Mister Kuwabara, I am not Hiei's "girlfriend"," she added. "What a ridiculous thing to say! If you ever said something like that around Hiei, he might kill you!"

"But I thought you two were–"

"Absolutely not, Kuwabara!"

"Okay! Calm down!"

"Well, really! You could spoil a lady's good reputation saying such things! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"I-I'm sorry."

"Well alrighty then. Hop on. And this time, hold on tight."

Botan climbed onto her oar and Kuwabara climbed on behind her, grabbing the handle of the oar tightly in both hands.

"Here we go!" she said, before zooming up into the air again.

As they flew towards their destination, Kuwabara remained uncharacteristically silent, apparently concentrating his efforts on holding onto the oar, seemingly having accepted Botan's excuse that it had been his fault that they had fallen and not hers: she had been so shocked to hear herself described as Hiei's girlfriend she had been unable to concentrate on breathing much less keeping her oar in existence and in the air. If somebody had said as much to her only a week earlier she would have laughed it off; but in light of the events of the past week, Botan found it almost painful to even begin thinking about.

She allowed herself to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, she had feelings for Hiei.

After several seconds of her mind going silent, Botan was suddenly aware that she was sinking. Looking about herself in alarm she realised that the very idea of having feelings for Hiei had apparently had such a profound effect on her that she had forgotten how to keep her oar airborne. Again. She hurriedly pulled up again, hoping that Kuwabara had not noticed her lapse in concentration: though she suspected that he had actually fallen asleep behind her, despite his position being arguably too uncomfortable for any human to manage to sleep.

Once she had righted herself in the air Botan reminded herself of the conversation she had shared with Hiei the night before: he thought that love was just a word invented by humans, and he claimed to live only to fight and get stronger. Though that did raise some questions about why he went to such great lengths to look after a sister who did not even know his relation to her and why he still carried around the tear his mother had shed when she had given birth to him.

There was, Botan decided, probably a lot of things she did not know or understand about Hiei, and yet he probably knew and understood all that he needed to about her. She wore her heart on her sleeve and always tried her very best to be happy and to make her friends happy, but Hiei was guarded and secretive, he never smiled out of happiness and he did not seem to care about keeping in touch with Kurama or Yusuke any more. It would be pointless to feel anything for him because he would undoubtedly reject any feelings anyone tried to project onto him. He hated pity, he hated love, he hated kindness and he hated Botan.

But, Botan thought, what if Hiei did actually have feelings for her? Kurama had seemed to think that he might, and given that Hiei did not express himself the same way most others did, how would she ever be able to tell if he did like her?

"Hm, I don't suppose he would threaten to kill me if he liked me…" she mused aloud.

"What?" Kuwabara yelled into her ear.

"Eh?" she yelped, turning to him in surprise. "Oh, nothing!"

"I thought you said something about killing," Kuwabara said.

Botan shook her head.

"Nope!" she said cheerfully. "Must have just been the wind whistling past your ears!"

Kuwabara eyed her over before frowning at her.

"You're really weird, Botan," he said in a low voice.

"Okay dokay," she said.

Kuwabara pulled a face at her but she turned from him, looking out across the horizon. It looked as though they were about halfway towards their destination already: she wondered if Hiei was already there, cursing their lateness.

* * *

Once Botan had reluctantly booked four rooms in the hotel by the edge of town she met up with Kuwabara by the lake the portal lay beyond, finding him looking as confused as he had when she had left him.

"No sign of Hiei?" she asked as she joined him.

He shook his head.

"Do we have to find him?" he asked. "Maybe the little guy went back to demon world."

"Maybe he did," Botan agreed. "But we should at least try to find him. I have to go back to spirit world today and Lord Koenma won't be happy with me if I go back with the news that we lost Hiei. Again."

Kuwabara nodded slowly.

"I don't like the little guy," he said.

"Oh come on now, Kuwabara!" Botan said, putting on her best smile. "Just think about all the wonderful things he's done for you!"

"Like what?" Kuwabara asked.

"Well what about the time he…"

Botan rolled her eyes towards the sky, but ideas of how to finish her sentence failed her.

"Exactly," Kuwabara grumbled. "I'll check the trees up the hill, you check around the other side of the lake."

"Alrighty!" Botan said cheerfully.

They took off in separate directions, Kuwabara heading into the trees that lined the slope of the hill beyond the lake and Botan moved along the bank of the water, following the curve of the water's edge away from the road in search of any signs of Hiei. She once more wished that she still had her mystic whistle to call on him, for as much as he disliked it, it certainly had always been effective. Without the whistle she was left walking through the long, boggy grass by the lake, looking about herself, concentrating on any trees she passed, desperately hoping to spot Hiei sitting waiting for them somewhere nearby.

After several minutes of walking around the lake, her feet sinking into the marshy land and ruining her shoes, Botan stopped at the sound of her communicator ringing. She smiled optimistically, hoping that it would be Kuwabara calling to tell her that he had found the elusive fire demon they sought: but her smiled faltered slightly as she saw that it was in fact Koenma.

"Lord Koenma, Sir," she greeted him.

"Botan, you're not back yet," he said bluntly. "What's keeping you?"

"Well Sir, we've… We've lost Hiei," she confessed.

"Again?" Koenma echoed.

"I'm rather afraid so, Sir," Botan replied.

Koenma sighed and muttered something to George, who briefly appeared in the image as he leaned in to listen to what Koenma was telling him.

"Okay Botan, but do hurry back," Koenma said once George had vanished again. "And remember to bring the mystic whistle, we need it here."

"What do you need it for?" Botan asked, hoping to find an excuse not to bring the whistle back.

"A small incident involving a racoon demon," Koenma replied. "It's causing pandemonium down here, and if my father finds out, well you know what he'll do to me. And if that happens, I'll have him do exactly the same to you, so hurry up and bring back the whistle, Botan!"

"Yes Sir!" Botan agreed.

Koenma terminated the link, and in her state of panic at the idea of invoking the wrath of King Enma, the communicator slipped from Botan's delicate fingers.

"Oopsie!" she gasped, fumbling after it but failing to catch it before it plopped into the lake. "Oh dear…"

She edged up to the water, her feet sinking further into the wet ground until water began to pool around her ankles. She crouched down and reached a hand into the water, but she could not reach to the bottom, forcing her to wade into the lake itself until she was up to her knees in water, whereupon she crouched down again and fished out her communicator, shaking the excess water from it. Botan stood up and flipped open the communicator, amazed to see that it still worked despite having been completely submerged for several seconds. She sighed in relief that she had one less excuse to make to Koenma when she got back to spirit world and started to turn to wade her way back to the shore, pausing as a glint of light caught her eye by the water's surface.

"Huh?" she muttered as the surface of the water rippled past her right side.

She felt her blood run cold as she saw the flick of a slimy tail, her shock so severe she did not immediately feel the sharp pain of something biting into her leg. As she started to feeling the sting of four fangs embedded into her inner thigh she dropped her head, breathing in sharply as she saw a known poisonous snake penetrating the material of her jeans to pierce her skin. In a blind panic she screamed and started trying to run for the shore, tripping over a rock and stumbling over, her entire body going under the water.

Botan quickly resurfaced from the shallow water and grabbed at the grass, pulling her body out of water and back onto almost solid ground. She looked down, relieved to see that the snake had let go and disappeared, but distraught to see the small tears in her jeans, the ribbons of red in the water and the dark stains that were spreading around the holes in her clothing. She tried to tell herself that she was not really bleeding too badly, that it just looked worse because she was wet and the water had diluted her blood, making it seem as though there was far more than their actually was; but really, how much the wound was or was not bleeding was the least of her worries, because she could already feel the area around the bite going numb from the venom.

Can I die in this body, she wondered?

No sooner had the idea entered her mind than she began to panic. She really only had two choices: get back to spirit world or get an antivenom treatment. A quick look about her told Botan that the snake had long gone, and in her panic she could barely remember what it looked like, which ruled out the possibility of her getting treated correctly. Her only option left was spirit world, and the hope that going there would cancel out what had happened.

Botan successfully summoned her oar, but when she tried to stand up only one of her legs obeyed the orders of her mind. Her right leg felt heavy and she was still shaking from shock, making it impossible to stand in the boggy ground. She tried stabbing her oar into the ground and using it to hoist herself up, but all she managed was to drag her leg up a short way before sliding back down to the ground. She groaned, resting her back against her oar, which was still embedded in the ground, and retrieved her communicator. Maybe if she called Koenma he could send Ayame to collect her and take her back to spirit world, she thought.

Botan flipped open the communicator and pushed a button to call Koenma, frowning slightly when nothing happened. She pushed it again, but still nothing happened. She gave a communicator a little shake, and more water sprayed out of it. She closed her eyes, inwardly cursing the stupidity of spirit world technology: if the measly little mystic whistle could withstand all manners of demonic magic, why could the communicator not at least be waterproof?

Botan opened her eyes again in time to see something drop down in front of her. She stared at it curiously before glancing about herself and the open piece of land she was sitting in, silently wondering where exactly it had fallen down from.

"Well," she began. "I never expected–ah!"

She cried out in pain as her wound suddenly throbbed, and looking down she saw a hand gripping her leg around the bloody mark.

"What are you doing?" she wailed.

Hiei met her eyes but said nothing.

"That hurts!" she added.

He looked downwards and she followed the direction of his gaze, whimpering as she saw her own blood slowly trickling along the length of his fingers.

"I was bitten by a snake," she said. "I have to get out of here!"

"Hn, you're probably poisoned," he replied, looking into her eyes again.

"Yes, and I might die!" she snapped irritably. "I can't even apply a tourniquet, it's too high up my leg!"

"We could drain the venom."

Botan cried out and clawed her fingers into the damp ground as Hiei squeezed her wound painfully.

"It will probably hurt, you'll need to stay still," he added.

"Well thank you for the warning, mister chivalry!" she snapped, tears forming in her eyes and blurring the image of him crouched before her.

"Either we drain it or you die," he flatly replied. "I don't really care either way."

"You're very mean, Hiei!" Botan sobbed. "Sometimes I just simply dislike you!"

Hiei smirked at her response, rising to his feet.

"Well then suffer," he said. "I won't be the one to explain to Koenma why you killed that body though."

Botan watched in horrified disbelief as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and started to walk away from her.

"Hiei?" she called after him. "Hiei! Don't leave me here like this!"

"Hn, make up your mind, woman," he said, stopping to look over his shoulder at her.

"Please, Hiei!" she pleaded. "Don't leave me like this! Please?"

"Fine."

He turned around to face her, and something about the wideness of his eyes and the sharpness of the smirk on his face made her instantly regret asking for his help.

"Take off your clothes, lie still and stay quiet," he said.

Botan's jaw dropped and she momentarily forgot all about her wound.

"Ew!" she heard another voice say. "Do you say that to all the girls, trial size?"

Hiei's face dropped and his eyes shifted to one side. Botan followed the direction he was looking and found Kuwabara standing staring at Hiei, his face red and his lip curled in disgust.

"Shut-up," Hiei said.

"No really, do you actually say that to girls?" Kuwabara asked. "Because I want to know, does it work?"

Hiei groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Make yourself useful," he said. "Go into town and buy a bottle of the most lethal brand of alcohol you can lay your hands on."

"What?" Kuwabara echoed. "But I'm not old enough to buy alcohol yet."

"Then get on your knees and hold her down for me," Hiei said, pointing at Botan.

Kuwabara glanced back and forth between Botan and Hiei before nodding his head.

"I think I saw a liquor store near the town centre," he said quietly. "I'll go and uh, get some stuff, and you guys can just go back to whatever the hell it was that you were doing."

Kuwabara turned away and walked off, muttering quietly to himself as he went. Botan watched him go, only looking away when she felt Hiei kneeling down in front of her again. She turned to him abruptly, crying out and slapping at his hands as he suddenly ripped the leg of her jeans open.

"Stop that!" she cried. "I can't walk around like that!"

"You're so noisy…" he muttered, catching her wrists in his hands. "Stay still."

"No!" she protested. "You've ruined my clothes!"

Hiei pointedly looked down at the lower half of her legs, which were still drenched and muddied from her wade into the lake.

"Maybe you should just take these off," he said.

Botan screamed out alarm as he released her wrists only to grab her legs and pull her towards him, her back sliding down the shaft of her oar, leaving her in a slouched position. She quickly caught his hands as they reached for the fastening of her jeans, gripping her fingers around his and staring up at him. She saw a flicker of emotion pass over his eyes and his throat move as he swallowed hard, but he shortly covered it with a shrug and look of indifference.

"This is why I don't bother helping people," he said.

"Wait!" Botan said sternly. "I'll take my jeans off, but you need to give me your coat."

"What?" he echoed.

"Give me your coat," she repeated. "I'm not about to lie here in my… Underwear. Give me your coat so that I can at least… Retain some of my dignity!"

Hiei groaned but obliged her request, removing his coat, his scarf falling to the ground upon his actions. He held the coat out to her but she hesitated to accept his offer.

"But-but now you're naked on top," she said.

"Do you want to die?" he responded.

"Not especially," she grumbled. "I don't know how I would explain to Lord Koenma that the soul I was ferrying today was my own…"

She took Hiei's coat and pulled it on over her head, slipping her arms into it and shuffling around to pull it down her legs before stuffing her hands up the coat to unfasten her jeans. She managed to push her jeans to her ankles before the sting in her leg stopped her. She then pressed her hands against Hiei's coat, covering herself as best she could with it whilst leaving the bite-mark exposed.

"Alright, fine," she said.

"Hn."

Hiei knelt down in front of her again and she gripped her hands into the moss around her, closing her eyes and tensing for the pain that she was sure was to follow. But what did follow shocked her so much she barely noticed the pain at all. Slowly she opened one eye, peering down to confirm her suspicions, gasping quietly when she saw proof of what she was feeling. She opened her other eye, watching in quiet fascination as Hiei literally sucked the poison out of her wound. He had one arm wrapped around her leg to hold it against his mouth, the other pushed down against her other leg to keep her legs spread apart. The suction was, frankly, painful, but there was something oddly soothing about it. Botan told herself that it was probably because the poison was being drawn out, but as Hiei lifted his head to spit over the other side of her thigh, the sight of her blood and his saliva on his lips sent an unusual rush through her chest.

Botan closed her eyes again as he moved to begin sucking again, turning her head away and tensing until he had finished completely, only then daring to open her eyes again and look at him. As she looked at him he sat up onto his knees, his arms sliding from her legs. He lifted his bandaged hand to his mouth, dragging it across his lips, the action sending another rush through Botan's chest. Hiei then stared at her blankly and unblinkingly, and she began to feel her face growing hot.

She gasped as he suddenly grabbed a hand at her wound, and she looked down to watch as he wiped away the excess blood. She could not watch his actions for long, soon turning her head away, the awkwardness of the whole situation overwhelming her. Turned away from Hiei, Botan looked back at the town behind them, at first feeling nothing more than relief when she saw Kuwabara running towards them, a plastic carrier bag in one hand.

Then she realised exactly what was about to happen.

"Hiei!" she yelped, turning to him abruptly.

"What?" he snapped, scowling at her unpleasantly.

"You…" she began, pointing at his bare chest.

"What?" he asked again.

"If Kuwabara sees the…"

Botan glanced back at Kuwabara, alarmed at how fast he was closing in on them, then back at Hiei's angry face, then at the glittering pair of stones hanging around his neck before finally looking him in the eye again.

"Get down!" she ground out, grabbing his hair in both her hands and pulling his head down to the ground between her legs.

Hiei muffled out a complaint but surprisingly did not struggle as she held him down. Botan turned to Kuwabara, who was slowing as he approached them, his eyes flicking nervously between Botan and Hiei.

"Hey you guys…" he said warily.

"Oh, hello again, Kuwabara!" Botan greeted him.

"I got your stuff," he said, his voice breaking slightly as he spoke.

"Oh goody!" she replied. "Could you be a dear and just leave it here, and go away for just a little bit longer?"

Kuwabara carefully placed the bag down on the ground and backed away from it.

"Thanks Kuwabara!" Botan called after him.

He turned around and started muttering to himself about Yusuke and Kurama owing him substantial amounts of money relating to some sort of bet they had going, but his words soon faded altogether as he moved further away. Once she was confident that he was too far away to make out the hiruiseki hanging around Hiei's neck Botan lifted her hands from his head, whereupon he rapidly rocked back onto his knees, glaring at her, his eyes positively glowing.

"Oopsie!" she said nervously. "That was close, wasn't it?"

"You pushed my face into your crotch, woman," he flatly replied.

"No, I pushed you down so that Kuwabara would not see those stones around your neck," she corrected him. "You know Kuwabara is so fond of Yukina, he surely would have noticed and told Yukina."

Hiei did not so much as blink, instead remaining perfectly still and silent for several seconds before holding one hand out towards Botan.

"Give me back my coat," he said.

"Oh, right…" she muttered.

Botan tried to stand up but found that she was still incapacitated by the wound on her leg.

"Just a moment," she said, before moving her hands over the wound to heal it.

Hiei muttered something illegible before snatching up his scarf and winding it around his neck, stuffing the stones up into it out of sight. He then moved over to the bag Kuwabara had left, crouching over it and pulling it apart to reveal a bottle of whisky. He picked it up, eying over the label as he unscrewed the lid. Botan finished healing her wound in time to see Hiei take a sniff of the contents of the bottle, his face twitching in distaste.

"What's that for, anyway?" she called over to him, grabbing at her oar and pulling herself to her feet.

"To ease the pain," he replied.

"Oh I see…"

The two stood staring at each other, the moment only broken when Kuwabara rejoined them.

"Hey, I just got a call from Koenma," he said to them. "He said he's sending Ayame to help us find Hiei."

"But we've already found Hiei," Botan pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, but I was kinda…" Kuwabara began, glancing nervously between Botan and Hiei. "I was confused. Is he back to help us, or did he just come back to… You know…"

Botan slowly shook her head but Hiei made a noise of disgust.

"Fool," he snarled at Kuwabara. "Don't stand there and preach to me about trust!"

"Well you're not exactly the most reliable, trustworthy kinda guy, are you, Hiei?" Kuwabara argued back.

"I couldn't care any less what an idiot like you thinks about anything," Hiei smoothly replied.

"You've got short man complex."

Hiei's face changed and Botan cringed in anticipation of what was to come next. At first Hiei just looked taken aback, but his face slowly darkened over and he fixed Kuwabara with a death-glare.

"That's rich, coming from a cumbersome oaf like you!" he sneered.

"I'm not an oaf, I'm just a little bit taller than the average guy," Kuwabara replied. "Which is like about two feet taller than you, short stack! And you do have short man complex, you've got all the symptoms: you're bad tempered, you're grumpy, you want power, you want people to respect you–"

"Shut-up or I will kill you by the slowest, most painful method I can think of: and I was raised in demon world, so you better know that I know a lot of slow and painful ways of killing people!"

"See, there you go with the bad temper…"

Hiei growled before lifting the bottle of whisky to his lips and throwing his head back. Botan and Kuwabara watched in awe as he downed a third of it before stopping for air.

"And another thing," he said. "I know that you poked my jagan eye when I was ill."

Kuwabara turned pale, he turned bright red and then he turned deathly pale, all in less than ten seconds.

"Urameshi made me do it," he eventually recovered.

"And you put my finger up my nose," Hiei added.

"It was a joke!" Kuwabara defended himself.

"I'm not laughing," Hiei spat.

"I've only ever seen you laugh once, Hiei, and what you laughed at wasn't even funny."

"Hn, I don't care for foolishness like you do."

Hiei took another swig from the bottle and Kuwabara scowled at him.

"Did I just buy that so that you could get drunk?" he asked.

"This is for pain relief!" Hiei corrected him.

Botan held up one finger but did not bother voicing her protest when Hiei began drinking again.

"You don't look like you're in pain to me, shrimpy," Kuwabara muttered.

"I'm going back to demon world," Hiei announced, walking over to Botan. "I've had enough of this ridiculous charade! I'm not getting dragged into any more of your human problems. You should drink this, it will numb the pain."

Botan looked down at the bottle Hiei was offering her, her eyebrow quirking as she saw that there was barely a mouthful left in the bottom of the bottle.

"Well, thanks for that, Hiei," she said sarcastically, taking the bottle from him.

"Hey if you leave now, it kinda makes you look guilty, Hiei!" Kuwabara yelled after Hiei. "Like maybe you only helped us at first to distract us from the real problem in demon world! You're a snake!"

Hiei ignored him, turning on his heel and marching off.

"Hiei, your coat!" Botan called after him.

He muttered out something that failed to reach her ears and she sighed in defeat. She slouched her shoulders forward and slumped her weight against her oar, feeling decidedly disappointed that Hiei had given up on them.

"Oh, wait!" she brightened.

She put down the bottle she held and dug her hands into both pockets of Hiei's coat, grinning insatiably. He kept the mystic whistle in one of the coat pockets, and now that she had his coat, she must also have the whistle back in her possession. The thought of going back to Koenma no longer filled her with dread. If she had the whistle, all would be well.

"Guess again," Hiei called back to her.

She turned her head sharply to him, finding him some distance away and still walking on, his head still facing the direction he was going. His bandaged hand was raised at his side, and he appeared to be sending an inverse V-sign to her; but squinting a little she saw that he was balancing the mystic whistle between his fingers.

"Oh, darn!" she moaned, grabbing up the bottle of whisky again. "Oh well, fair heart never won fair… Wait… Oh who cares?"

Botan lifted the bottle to her lips and took a small mouthful, coughing it back out before she came anywhere close to swallowing it.

"Oh my goodness!" she cried. "That is terrible! It burns!"

She turned to Kuwabara, who was staring at her as though she was some sort of terrifying demon.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You're really weird, Botan," he replied.

She nodded, pouring the remains of the bottle out by the water's edge.

"Well, no sense in wasting any more time," she said decisively. "You carry on with your search, I'm going to get some fresh clothes and I'll meet you back here in about an hour."

Botan waited for Kuwabara to reply, but his attention had wandered from her. She turned her head to see what had captivated him so, mildly alarmed to see Ayame floating down towards them on her oar.

"Oh dear…" she muttered.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Yusuke and Kurama aren't having much luck with their efforts in demon world and Botan is under pressure to recover the mystic whistle, leaving her to concoct a desperate plan. **Chapter 7: The Problem**.


	7. The Problem

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Botan was bitten by a snake, and Hiei came to her rescue, leaving both confused. Hiei abandoned the mission to return to demon world, taking the mystic whistle with him.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: The Problem**

"Spar with me."

Mukuro sat up slowly, blinking a few times to confirm that she was not imagining the sight before her.

"I'm bored," he added. "So just spar with me."

Mukuro sat forwards, resting one elbow on her knee.

"Hiei, you've been gone for days, you look awful and you stink of cheap alcohol and human blood," she said frankly. "Don't you think you need to explain yourself?"

Hiei blinked slowly.

"…No."

Mukuro nodded.

"Get back to work," she ordered.

Hiei stood staring blankly at her as though he had not heard her. She sighed, lying back and closing her eyes, indicating to him that the conversation was over. A few seconds later she heard him leave her room again, his departure as sudden, loud and unexpected as his entrance had been only moments before.

Outside of Mukuro's room Hiei stomped along the corridors, barely noticing the other demons he passed, who either flinched out of his path fearfully or else stopped to stare. Hiei was angry and he was bored, and he had no desire to spend his time running errands for spirit world or even going back to work with the border patrol. He needed an outlet for his excess energy, and he could not think of anyone who was fit to stand toe-to-toe with him in battle but Mukuro, and since she had just refused to fight, he was going to have to find another avenue for the release he needed.

After several minutes of angry thumping about, Hiei eventually found his way to the yard at the back of Mukuro's fortress, which was mostly used as a training ground by her finest soldiers. Although Mukuro no longer held a position of power in demon world, her men had remained loyal to her and still trained as though they were readying to charge into battle in her name. When Hiei arrived, there were several one-on-one sparring sessions going on between some of Mukuro's finest; but his attention was not on the fighting. He had gone there to look for one person he knew only too well would be there, and so he began weaving his way through the crowds of spectators and soldiers until he saw the face he sought.

"Yeah!" a shrill voice cried out. "Cut his head off!"

Hiei hesitated briefly, a small part of him questioning his own sanity for what he was about to do.

"Oh, yeah!" the voice groaned, suddenly much deeper in tone. "Do it again, but this time do it harder!"

Hiei walked on.

"You," he said.

The girl turned to him, looking a little confused at first before grinning at him.

"Well if isn't everybody's least favourite miniature fire demon!" she said cheerfully.

"Shut-up," he responded. "I'm bored. Follow me."

"I'm busy!" she protested. "I have to practise my voice calling matches. The next big tournament is just around the corner, you know, and a girl has to be at her best!"

Hiei slowly ran his eyes over the fox demon in front of him – or at least, he thought that she was a fox demon, she did have a fox's tail, though she often acted and sounded more like some sort of cat. Whatever she actually was, she was a pretty pitiful excuse for a demon.

"I'm bored," he said again.

"Then maybe you should fight too!" she suggested. "Fights are always brutally violent when you get involved."

"Last chance," Hiei warned her.

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"I suppose I can give you five minutes," she said, as though what he was asking of her was an onerous task.

"Fine," he agreed.

He turned and walked away and she followed after him, sniffing at his shoulder as they walked.

"You smell weird," she commented. "Like really bad alcohol, human blood and… What is that?"

Hiei did not answer her, but he did know what she was talking about. Although he had not taken the effort to sniff himself, he already knew that he must be reeking of Botan after being in such close contact with her. She had quite a strong smell about her, the smell of grassy meadows and wild flowers, presumably from all the time she spent flying about the open countryside on her oar. In a place like demon world, where the stench of blood and decay hung heavy in the air, the light and airy smell of Botan stood out worse than a silly, flimsy little fox demon screaming at a yard full of serious S-Class demon warriors.

"Is that a human smell?" the fox asked as they turned into a wider corridor.

"This is far enough," Hiei said, stopping abruptly.

"It's not very nice," she complained, looking about the dark walls. "Can't we at least find a cupboard somewhere?"

"Just shut-up," Hiei replied.

She met his eyes, and upon seeing the determined look on his face she shrugged her shoulders and then grabbed her arms around him as he pounced at her, flattening her to the floor.

* * *

"Hello, Ayame!" Botan said, grinning brilliantly at her dour friend.

"Lord Koenma sent me," Ayame flatly replied, sliding off of her oar. "He wants you to go back to spirit world. And take the mystic whistle with you, there's a little racoon demon raising hell in the records room."

"Oh dear!" Botan said, still smiling. "Ayame, have you ever met Kuwabara?"

Botan stepped aside to indicate Kuwabara, but Ayame's eyes did not move from hers.

"If I'm taking over here, do I have to wear that outfit?" Ayame asked, eying Botan over.

"Oh dear, no!" Botan hurriedly assured her. "I just had a little accident, is all!"

"I see. So where's the rest of the "team"?"

"Oh, well, Yusuke and Kurama are in demon world, Kuwabara is here, as you can see, and Hiei is… Well we're not really sure, but we think he's just gone back to demon world too. I think he might have quit the team, but I haven't had a chance to tell Lord Koenma yet."

Ayame's eyes thinned slightly.

"Didn't Lord Koenma send you to demon world when he wanted to find Hiei?" she asked.

"Yes, that's right, he did!" Botan replied. "It's a very unusual place."

Ayame took a definite step back from Botan.

"I didn't really want to come here, you know," she said.

"Really?" Botan asked. "But why ever not?"

Ayame's eyes narrowed further.

"Do you want to go back to spirit world right now?" she asked.

"Well I was enjoying helping the team…" Botan said slowly.

Ayame nodded.

"Okay, I'll go back to spirit world, you stay here," she said.

With a great effort, Botan managed to make herself look confused.

"Just give me the mystic whistle, that racoon will drive me mad if we don't catch it soon."

Botan's face dropped and her joy at being able to stay in the living world vanished.

"The… The mystic whistle?" she asked.

"Yes, the mystic whistle," Ayame replied. "You do have it, don't you?"

"Not exactly, no…" Botan said slowly. "I've sort of… Temporarily misplaced it…"

"Does Lord Koenma know about this?"

"Not yet, no."

"That's pretty serious, Botan."

"Yes. Yes it is."

Botan lowered her eyes, finding it impossible to look Ayame in the eye any longer. In the chaos of the last few days she had almost forgotten the severity of the sentence she faced for losing the mystic whistle. She was almost certain that she was Koenma's favourite ferry girl, but even that was unlikely to lessen her punishment any. In fact it only made her predicament all the worse: she felt guilty for letting him down after he had placed so much trust in her.

"I think you should go back to spirit world and tell Lord Koenma yourself," Ayame eventually said.

Botan lifted her head, meeting Ayame's eyes again. She knew that her friend was right, but that did not make agreeing with her any easier.

"Hey Botan, is everything okay?" Kuwabara asked her.

"No, I'm rather afraid it's not," she said with a small sigh. "You see, I've lost the mystic whistle, and Lord Koenma has a need for it."

"Whether or not Lord Koenma needs the whistle right now is irrelevant," Ayame pointed out. "It's the fact that you've lost it. How long ago did you lose it anyway?"

Botan glanced back and forth between Ayame and Kuwabara, her mind slowly replaying the night Hiei had taken the whistle from her in painstaking detail.

"Hey, wait a minute…" Kuwabara muttered. "The mystic whistle? I think I know where it is, Botan!"

Botan turned to glare at Kuwabara, but he failed to sense her warning.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it!" he continued. "The little worm had it when he left!"

Botan tried her best to glare at Kuwabara in a look that Hiei himself would be proud of, but still Kuwabara grinned and did not seem to notice her ire.

"Who?" Ayame asked.

"The tiny di-oof!"

Kuwabara's words were lost in a groan of pain as Botan yanked her oar out of the ground in a swinging motion, driving one corner of the blade into his stomach and causing him to double over.

"Ow!" he complained as he straightened up again. "Watch where you're putting that thing, Botan!"

"Oopsie," she said in a harsh tone that suggested anything but remorse. "But I should really be going now."

"Did that strange-looking boy say that he knows where the whistle is?" Ayame asked Botan as she turned to face her.

"Hey, who's strange-looking?" Kuwabara snapped.

"He's a little bit confused," Botan said, wringing her hands around her oar nervously: she was a hopeless liar. "I really have no idea where it might be right now, and neither does Kuwabara."

Well at least that last part was not completely a lie, Botan consoled herself. After all, neither of them knew exactly where Hiei was, and wherever Hiei was, so was the mystic whistle.

"I'm not strange-looking, I'm distinctive," Kuwabara muttered. "Wait… Or is that distinguished?"

"You're certainly distinctively something," Botan muttered.

"What was that?" he echoed.

"Well I'll be off then," she said brightly, hopping onto her oar. "Good luck Ayame, and Kuwabara I hope you can manage without Hiei today."

"I don't need his help, I'm twice the man he is," Kuwabara assured her. "Hey wait… Twice the man, I'll have to remember that one!"

Botan rolled her eyes and smiled at Ayame, who was looking increasingly displeased with her predicament, her face creased as though she had a bad taste in her mouth.

"Goodbye!" Botan called to them as she took off into the sky.

As she gained altitude Botan relaxed, at first just enjoying the cool air rushing past her. It had been quite warm on ground level, so it was pleasantly relieving to escape into the cooler air higher in the sky; but the lower temperature quickly reminded Botan of her current predicament: she had no shoes on, she was still mostly wet from her fall in the lake, and she was still wearing Hiei's coat.

But, she told herself, Koenma was unlikely to care or even to notice any of these things once she told him that the mystic whistle was gone.

With a gulp of anxiety, Botan passed through a portal into spirit world.

* * *

"I really think that we have to agree on a better meeting venue than this," Kurama said, looking about himself with a small frown.

"Are you kidding me?" Yusuke echoed in disbelief. "This is the perfect meeting place! It's crowded, it looks natural meeting here, and there must be one of these joints in every town we've been to! Easy to find, easy to remember… And a great atmosphere."

Yusuke grinned and raised his mug of beer. Kurama smiled tightly and pushed away the tankard Yusuke had ordered for him.

"All frivolity aside, how are things today?" he asked.

Yusuke did not answer immediately, as he was sipping at his drink. As he lowered his mug to the bar he nodded his head before swallowing and wiping his sleeve across his lips to remove the foam that had gathered there.

"Yes, it's very quiet for me too," Kurama said.

Yusuke looked at him curiously, silently wondering how he had known what his answer would be, before shrugging and picking up his drink again.

"This can't continue," Kurama said as Yusuke starting drinking again. "None of us has the time to waste chasing our tails."

"I don't have a tail," Yusuke replied.

"It's a figure of speech," Kurama patiently replied.

"Right… I just wondered because when you're Youko, you do have a tail."

"We're running out of time. I think we need to take action to try to draw out the suspects. Otherwise this will not resolve until the tournament begins, and that is something we must take all necessary steps to avoid."

Kurama looked about himself again, his eyelids lowering a little on instinct as the acrid, smoky air around him began to sting his eyes. Their meeting place of choice – or rather, Yusuke's meeting place of choice – was crowded and it was true that nobody glanced their way even once: but it still seemed a little demeaning to visit such a place every day, which is exactly what had been happening ever since Kurama had found himself paired with Yusuke to search demon world for signs of the uprising they had been warned about.

"I know what you mean," Yusuke said, sounding more serious. "If this comes to a head during the tournament it will be a disaster. They might cancel the tournament altogether, and that would really piss me off."

Kurama shifted his eyes to Yusuke, watching him take another drink from his mug, apparently unaware of how small-minded his remark had been. And, infuriatingly, his eyes were still on the stage at the top of the room.

"I have an idea, though it will be a difficult one to pursue," Kurama began.

"Oh yeah?" Yusuke responded, his eyes still locked on the performance playing out at the other end of the room.

"Yes," Kurama continued. "Are you familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse?"

"What?"

"The Trojan Horse. The idea is simply that when a group of people wish to hide something – or indeed to hide themselves – they do it in the last place anyone would think of looking."

"In spirit world, right?"

"No. Directly in front of those they wish to hide from."

Yusuke nodded slowly before affording Kurama two quick, successive sideward glances, apparently unwilling to take his eyes off the action for any length of time.

"Now you're not making any sense, fox boy," he said.

"I'm trying to say that I think what we're looking for isn't going to be found in any dark alleyways or criminal hideouts," Kurama replied. "Or even in a seedy, underground strip club like this…"

"I know, isn't it great?" Yusuke responded, grinning like a little boy.

Kurama contained a sigh, inwardly reminding himself that Yusuke would soon tire of meeting in the same string of clubs, as the next day was the one day of the week that the club had male strippers performing: something he intended to "forget" to tell Yusuke about, if only to see the look on his face when the time arrived.

"I think what we're looking for is being hidden in the heart of one of the former ruler's fiefdoms," Kurama said.

Yusuke glanced at Kurama briefly, his smile fading. His eyes returned to the stage until the current act had finished before he turned his attention fully to Kurama for the first time since their arrival.

"What did you just say about thief domes?" he asked.

"I miss Hiei," Kurama muttered.

"What?" Yusuke echoed.

"Nothing, I was just thinking aloud," Kurama replied.

"About thief domes?"

"Not thief domes, fiefdoms. Kingdoms, if you like."

"What?"

Before Kurama could explain himself Yusuke's attention was once more drawn away from him as another woman stepped up onto the stage to start her act. And a second later, Yusuke's attention was drawn further away as a ruckus started by the entrance to the club.

"Check it out, it's another under-age kid trying to get in!" Yusuke said, pointing over at the door and laughing.

Kurama craned his neck and squinted against the smog of tobacco smoke and fumes from burnt food orders to focus on the struggle taking place by the entrance, his face slowly contorting as his initial fears were confirmed.

"That's not an under-age child trying to gain access," he said solemnly. "That's Hiei."

"That's Hi… What?"

Yusuke shot up from his bar stool and turned around, stretching onto his toes to try to see the source of the problem. His face dissolved into a grin of delight as the bouncers at the door finally stepped aside and an irate demon less than a third of their size stumbled into the club, glaring up at them angrily.

"Did they stop him for being under-age?" Yusuke asked, turning to Kurama.

"Perhaps," Kurama replied.

"But they've got kids working here that only look about ten years old!"

Yusuke pointed at a small boy with pointed ears and a long scaly tail who was carrying a tray of drinks. As he and Kurama watched the young boy, Hiei approached him, helping himself to a drink from the tray, ignoring the boy's complaints.

"They've got kids working here that only look about ten years old, but are still bigger than Hiei," Yusuke said flatly.

They watched Hiei stomp up to the bar and clamber – a little awkwardly, owing to his short legs – up onto a stool. He thumped his mug down onto the bar and clattered his elbows down on either side of it, his face tight and threatening.

"Hey, Hiei," Yusuke said.

Yusuke and Kurama watched expectantly, but Hiei appeared not to have heard him.

"Hey!" Yusuke said, raising his voice a little to cut through the drone of the crowd. "Hiei!"

Hiei turned at the sound of his name, the look on his face enough to make even Yusuke take a step back.

"Oh it's you," he muttered.

"Yeah… Hi…" Yusuke warily replied, feeling no more reassured when Hiei's expression did not lighten any even upon recognising them.

"Everything alright, Hiei?" Kurama called over to him.

"Yeah, you look a little worn out there, little guy," Yusuke added. "Do you need a fake ID? Because I know a guy, I could fix that for you."

Hiei's face darkened further and Yusuke grinned nervously.

"That was a joke, Hiei," he quickly added.

"What is it with you humans and your jokes?" Hiei spat back.

Yusuke and Kurama both tensed at Hiei's use of the word "human", glancing about themselves nervously to confirm that nobody else nearby had heard it.

"I don't like jokes," Hiei continued, seemingly oblivious to his mistake. "They're so infantile and unnecessary."

Once Kurama was confident that nobody had overheard Hiei's _faux pas_ he turned to Yusuke to voice his concerns over Hiei's presence there to begin with: only to find Yusuke staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at the stage as a female dog demon did something shocking with a beer bottle.

"Yusuke?" Kurama said, watching him patiently.

"Woof woof, bitch," Yusuke muttered, his eyes still locked onto the stage.

Kurama moved over to Hiei, deciding to take a direct approach since Yusuke was apparently too absorbed in what he saw to concentrate on anything else at that moment.

"Hiei, not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why are you here?" he asked, sitting down on the stool next to Hiei.

"I came here to forget about pesky fox demons and stupid humans," Hiei bluntly replied.

Kurama nodded lightly and slid from his stool. Without so much as a backward glance he left the club, deciding to continue on alone.

* * *

"Good morning Lord Koenma, Sir!" Botan said brightly as she entered his office.

"Ah, Botan," Koenma replied, his head down as he studied a stack of papers in front of him. "Good to have you back. Ogre, take Botan to the records vault and have her use the whistle to catch that racoon."

Botan turned to George, who was standing as faithfully as ever at Koenma's side, the only real difference in the picture before her being that George was staring at her, his jaw hanging open.

"Move ogre, I don't have all day!" Koenma said, snapping his fingers at George.

Botan cleared her throat quietly, hoping to attract Koenma's attention, but still he focussed on the papers in his tiny hands.

"Um, Sir?" she eventually said, stepping closer to his desk. "I have some bad news and I have some good news."

"Oh, Botan," he groaned, lifting his head. "Oh, Botan! What are you wearing? And why are you all wet and sticky?"

"Sticky?" Botan yelped, looking down at herself. "I was just…"

She put on her best smile and twirled around in a circle, Hiei's coat flaring out around her thighs as she did so.

"I was trying out a new look Lord Koenma!" she said confidently. "What do you think?"

"I think you look like a witch," he frankly replied. "The point of changing your clothes when you're in the living world is to look inconspicuous, but that just makes you look ridiculous! It's completely the wrong size for you, too."

"Yes…" Botan said quietly.

She looked down at the sleeves that ended halfway up her forearms and then pinched at the excess material by her shoulders. Apparently Hiei's coat had been made quite specifically for him, as the material around her shoulders would not flatten or fold to mould around her narrower back and shoulders, instead standing up rigid, making her look like she was wearing armour underneath the coat.

"Well anyway, I have good news and bad news," she continued, trying not to lose her momentum.

"Give me the bad news first," Koenma groaned.

"The bad news is, I've lost the mystic whistle," she said, deciding to just be direct.

"Botan, that's not bad news!" Koenma yelled, leaning over his desk towards her. "That's terrible news!"

"It's not permanently lost, Sir," she hurriedly added, sweating a little as she tried to maintain her smile. "I almost know where it is, I can get it back."

"Then what are you waiting for?" he demanded. "Get it back! Now!"

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now! If my father finds out you've lost that whistle, he'll make me suffer, and if I have to suffer, I'll make sure that you do too!"

"R-right, Sir, understood."

Koenma sat back down with a sigh.

"Can you get it back here within a day?" he asked, his voice softened.

"Of course, Sir!" she replied.

"Good," he said with a nod. "If you can get it back here by tomorrow morning, I'll pretend that we never had this conversation and I'll make an excuse to my father until you get here."

"Oh, thank you, Lord Koenma Sir!"

"Now cheer me up, Botan: tell me the good news."

Botan froze, still bowed over in the position she had adopted to praise thanks upon her boss.

"Um…" she said, slowly straightening up.

"You said you had good news and bad news," Koenma reminded her. "What's the good news?"

"Well…"

Botan chewed at her lip, silently wondering just why she had said that there was good news when clearly there was none. She reasoned that she had probably said it to soften the blow of telling her boss the bad news, but now she was obliged to tell him something good, and in light of the chaos of the past few days, she was bereft of inspiration.

"The good news is…" she began slowly, looking up towards the ceiling in thought. "That I do know where the mystic whistle is, and I can get it back to you by tomorrow morning?"

Koenma quirked an eyebrow at her and George slid back a step from the desk.

"I'll be back in a jiffy, Sir!" Botan hurriedly added. "You won't even notice me gone! I'll fly like the wind, get the whistle, and come straight back here!"

"Twenty-four hours, Botan," Koenma said.

"Understood, Sir!"

Botan turned and ran from his office, pausing at the door as he called her name. She turned to see him standing up on his chair and leaning over his desk.

"And for goodness sake, Botan, get a change of clothes!" he yelled.

She nodded to show that she had understood his order before running off again, skipping through the chaotic swarms of ogres and ferry girls outside, barely noticing them as her mind screamed the question she had no idea how to answer: what was she going to have to do to get the mystic whistle back from Hiei?

* * *

Botan folded her arms and tapped her foot against the ground angrily. Of course, her gesture lost some of its intended effect since she was still barefoot and dressed in Hiei's coat, but she persisted nevertheless.

"What is it with you boys?" she hissed. "Honestly, every time I turn my back, another one disappears!"

"It's the demons that are the problem, Botan," Kuwabara volunteered. "I've been loyal to this mission from the very beginning."

"Oh poppycock, Kuwabara!" she snapped. "You didn't even want to come along in the first place!"

"What's a "poppycock"?" Kuwabara asked her.

"Look inside your underpants," Yusuke whispered to him.

They both snorted amusedly but Botan merely became more irate.

"Boys, please!" she yelled. "This is serious! First Hiei, and now Kurama! Kuwabara, how could you let Hiei go? And Yusuke, why weren't you keeping an eye on Kurama?"

"Hiei left because of you," Kuwabara said quietly.

"Hiei's in demon world," Yusuke said with a shrug. "Kurama and I met him at the club. He was still there when I left."

"The club?" Botan asked, turning her glare to Yusuke.

Yusuke faltered slightly before laughing nervously and waving a dismissive hand at Botan.

"It's just a place Kurama and I meet to have lunch and to um… Discuss important things," he said.

"Indeed," Botan said, before turning her attention to Kuwabara. "And as for you, poor Ayame was a wreck when I found her. I don't know what you did to her."

"Kuwabara has that effect on all the girls," Yusuke said.

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara snapped.

"This whole mission is falling apart, and I'm going to get the blame for it as mission manager!" Botan cried.

"Who made you "mission manager"?" Yusuke snorted.

"Yeah, I thought Kurama was in charge," Kuwabara added.

"No, I'm in charge!" Yusuke argued.

"You?" Kuwabara spat. "Oh please, Urameshi! Everybody knows I'm way more dedicated to this mission than you are! I should be mission manager. This is a problem about missing humans from the living world, and I'm the only human from the living world here."

"That's not how it works. The strongest is the one in charge, and that's me!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! You need me to prove it? Again?"

"Boys, stop it!" Botan yelled.

They both turned to her eying her over before turning to each other and slowing grinning in a way that instantly made Botan uneasy.

"So Botan, you've really got no idea what Hiei got up to today?" Yusuke asked, as both boys turned towards her again.

Botan frowned slightly, silently wondering why Yusuke had put so much emphasis on the words "got up".

"No, none at all," she innocently replied. "One minute he was there helping me, the next he was gone."

"I hear he got up pretty quickly," Yusuke said.

"Yes, he did!" Botan agreed, frowning again as the boys sniggered slightly at her response. "He was up like a flash and then he went off on me!"

Kuwabara covered his mouth with one hand but his laughter still came out of his nose in a series of ungracious snorts. Yusuke elbowed him in the ribs but Kuwabara did not stop.

"Do you like it when Hiei goes off on you?" Yusuke asked.

"Of course I don't!" Botan replied. "Why would I? It's very cruel and selfish of him!"

"Selfish, right," Yusuke said, nodding his head slowly. "Because it's one sided? He gets off but you don't?"

"I never get off!" Botan said. "I'm always faithful to you boys, I would never walk out on anyone, not even Hiei!"

Kuwabara took a few deep breaths before composing himself.

"Are you sure you never got off with Hiei?" he asked.

"What do you mean "with Hiei"?" Botan asked. "He went off by himself! That had nothing to do with me!"

Yusuke began sniggering slightly, ducking his head as Botan looked his way in a vein attempt to hide his grin.

"I'm just saying, it looked like you were "with Hiei" earlier," Kuwabara continued. "Think about it Botan. Come on, think long and hard."

Botan rolled her eyes upwards and touched a finger to the corner of her mouth as she tried to think about what Kuwabara's obscure reference might actually mean to her.

"Are you thinking long and hard, Botan?" Yusuke asked her.

"I'm thinking very hard!" she snapped back.

The boys began sniggering again, only adding to her confusion.

"I'm very confused…" she muttered, lowering her eyes to the boys and pouting at them.

"So are we," Yusuke said. "But I guess that old saying is true after all. We're all the say size lying down, right?"

Kuwabara burst out laughing and Botan began to get angry.

"Stop that!" she whined. "It's not fair to laugh at jokes you don't share with your own mission manager!"

"You're not much of a mission manager, Botan," Yusuke said, trying to look stern but failing miserably. "I mean, you're not even on top of Hiei right now."

"I am absolutely on top of Hiei!" Botan argued back. "I am on top of him, I am all over him, and I have him exactly where he's meant to be!"

"So, uh…" Kuwabara said between guffaws. "You're taking charge of Hiei?"

"Yes I am, as a matter of fact, Mister Kuwabara!" she snapped. "And when I get my hands on him, I am going to put him on a leash to make sure he doesn't try any more of his nonsense!"

The boys almost collapsed onto each other in a fit of laughter, leaving Botan swaying between confusion and anger as she watched tears streaming from their eyes from the force of their hilarity.

"Well I'm glad that the two of you find it amusing that Hiei disobeys me all the time!" she said, blushing a little when her words only seemed to make them laugh even harder than before.

"H-Hey Botan!" Yusuke chuckled. "What happened at the lake earlier? I hear… I hear Hiei got you really wet?"

"Oh no, that wasn't Hiei's fault at all," Botan replied. "I did that all by myself."

Botan frowned.

"Why is that so funny?" she asked.

"All by yourself?" Yusuke asked, ignoring her question. "You mean Hiei didn't lend a hand?"

"Oh yes, he did help me," she replied, her face turning redder still when the boys laughed harder still.

"It looked like he was going down on you when I came over," Kuwabara said.

"What the hell?" Yusuke snapped, punching Kuwabara in the side of the head.

Suddenly both boys were deadly serious, and Botan was unsure whether or not it was an improvement.

"You've ruined it!" Yusuke hissed. "She didn't know what we were talking about before, now she'll be really pissed off!"

"Um… What?" Botan asked, her face draining of colour.

"I was running out of clever things to say!" Kuwabara defended himself.

"Next time, just let me do all the talking!" Yusuke warned him.

Yusuke glared at Kuwabara for a moment longer before walking up to Botan with a suddenly sad look on his face.

"I'm sorry, Botan," he said. "We were just having a laugh. We didn't mean anything by it. Maybe Kuwabara's gone crazy but I know for sure that Hiei wasn't actually going down on you by the lake earlier today."

Botan frowned curiously up at him and together they stood for several seconds exchanging increasingly confused looks.

"I-I don't understand…" she said slowly.

"You don't?" Yusuke asked, his face twisting in shock.

"Hiei was just sucking out the poison," Botan replied.

Yusuke's eyebrows shot up and Kuwabara grunted a half-laugh that turned into a noise of confusion.

"I was bitten by a snake on my leg," Botan explained.

"And Hiei was…?" Yusuke said slowly.

"Sucking out the poison," Botan finished for him.

"So he had his head down between your legs, and he was sucking on you?" Yusuke asked.

Kuwabara started laughing again.

"Yes, but I really don't see what's so funny about that," Botan tersely replied.

"You really don't?" Yusuke asked in disbelief. "But surely you can see how it must have looked to Kuwabara? You're lying there and Hiei's got his head between your…"

Botan was shaking her head and Yusuke's voice trailed off.

"It looked like he was performing oral sex on you," he said bluntly.

Botan blinked, but otherwise did not respond.

"Botan?" Yusuke asked carefully. "You okay?"

"No," she said quietly. "I'm even more confused now than before. For a start, what does oral sex mean? Can you even put those two words together like that?"

Kuwabara and Yusuke both made the same noise and both straightened their backs and glared at Botan until she started to blush again.

"Wh-what's wrong?" she asked, glancing back and forth between each of them. "Was it something I said?"

* * *

Kurama had been running so hard and for so long that he felt as though his legs had forgotten how to move slowly. It was getting dark by the time he arrived back at the small hotel the others were staying in, and he worried he might be locked out: some smaller hotels were known for locking their external doors during the night, and after the day he had endured, Kurama wanted nothing more than to relax in a human bed indoors.

Kurama was running so fast and concentrating so hard on reaching the hotel doors he ran right past the figure sat at the side of the road.

Kurama paused, his hand hovering by the doors of the hotel. As far as he could see, they were not locked, but as he stood there, his chest heaving, he slowly became aware of just who it was that he had passed sitting out on the street. He slowly turned around, walking back out onto the street, peering around the streetlight at the figure sat just outside of the pool of light it was casting onto the road.

"Botan?" he called out softly.

She lifted her head but did not turn towards him.

"Botan, are you alright?" he asked, slowly walking towards her.

"Oh, I'm fine!" she said, scurrying to her feet and turning her back on him.

Kurama paused on the other side of the circle of light, feeling less than convinced by her response.

"You should get inside," he advised her. "Hiei isn't coming back, you can stay in his room tonight."

"I didn't think that he would come back," she said, her tone tightening a little.

"Don't worry, he won't do anything to sabotage our mission," Kurama assured her.

"He already has," Botan replied in a muffled voice.

"I'm not sure that I understand…"

Botan sighed emphatically before turning around to face Kurama. Her head was lowered and her features cast into shadow against the glare of the light between them, but he was almost certain that she had been crying or was about to.

"Hiei has the mystic whistle," she said quietly.

"Oh dear," Kurama said with a smile. "A devilish device in the hands of the devil himself!"

"It's not funny, Kurama," she replied, her tone flat and lifeless. "Lord Koenma told me that I have to bring it back by tomorrow morning or…"

Botan left her sentence hanging, though Kurama was wise enough to guess how it would end.

"I see," he said. "Then that is indeed a problem."

"Yusuke said I can blame him if I like, which was surprisingly noble of him," she replied, sounding momentarily more like her usual, cheerful self. "Though I think he was only offering because he felt guilty for laughing at me earlier. And unfortunately Lord Koenma won't accept any more excuses. I have to bring it back to him, but Hiei refused to give it back, and now I don't even know where he is."

"Well, it's simple enough, so try not to worry," Kurama assured her. "I know exactly where Hiei is. He was going back to Mukuro's fortress the last time I saw him and I will be retuning to demon world early tomorrow morning. I will go to Hiei, get the whistle, and bring it straight back here."

"Hiei might not give it to you either," Botan miserably replied.

"I have ways of convincing people to do things they don't want to," Kurama said with a dark smile.

Botan lifted her head and Kurama stepped into the light, playing the fingers of one hand through his hair. He held out his hand to reveal a selection of seeds and he heard Botan manage a small laugh.

"That sure would be super if you could get it back for me, Kurama," she said.

"I'll do it on one condition," he replied, running his fingers through his hair again, embedding the seeds back in. "You go inside and get some sleep. You won't be any use to us tomorrow if you are half asleep all day."

Botan nodded and Kurama smiled politely before turning and starting back towards the hotel doors.

"Are you coming, Botan?" he called over his shoulder.

"Go ahead," she called back. "I'll just be a little longer, there's something I have to do first."

"Alright, but don't be too long."

Kurama proceeded into the hotel and to his room, leaving Botan out on the street alone. She waited there, watching as a light came on at the window of Kurama's room. She watched the window until the light went out before stepping forwards into the pool of light from the streetlight. From the corner of her eye she saw that a couple walking past were staring over at her in a mixture of fear and curiosity, and she could understand why: she had gone to great lengths to make herself look as terrifying as possible.

"Sorry Kurama," she said quietly. "I appreciate your kind offer, but this cannot wait."

She took a deep breath and wiped a tear from her cheek with one hand, simultaneously summoning her oar with the other. With one last forlorn look up at the hotel she leapt onto her oar and took off into the night sky, aiming herself towards the portal to demon world.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan confronts Hiei to recover the mystic whistle, and when he still refuses, she is forced to take his advice and take drastic measures to get it back. **Chapter 8: The Innocent.**


	8. The Innocent

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** After being mocked by Yusuke and Kuwabara and with a deadline set by Koenma for returning the mystic whistle, Botan ignored the sensible advice form Kurama and set out to enact her zaniest plan yet.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: The Innocent**

Botan was unsure how the living world and demon world correlated to each other in terms of time zones or climates, but apparently they were not synchronised, as one moment she was flying through a beautiful night sky against a cool wind and the next she was flying towards a rising sun in unbearable heat. She sank through the air, partly involuntarily as the heat began to wear her down and partly because she did not really wish to be seen flying her oar through demon world. She hit the ground running, her oar vanishing with a muted pop, her hands flying out in front of herself as she stumbled over, barely managing to land in a crouch.

Botan quickly stood up again and smoothed out her clothing – which was regrettably bulky, doing little to help her tolerate the heat – and flattened her hands against the top of her head to keep her hair flat. Her distinctive, baby blue hair with its gentle waves was the first thing she had been forced to change in her bid to disguise herself. She had braided it tightly at the back of her neck, and every time the wind had caught it during her flight it had smacked at her like a knotted rope. The shorter hair around her forehead that would not be tied back had been lacquered over to one side and pulled down tightly, completing her severe look. She had used an entire bottle of hair-gel on her hair to keep it straight and to darken it from pale sky blue to medium blue – not as dark as she had hoped for, but she did not have the time to mess about.

And besides, she thought to herself, Yusuke was going to be furious when he found out that she had completely exhausted his supply of hair gel.

And that was probably going to be nothing compared to what Kuwabara and Kurama were going to do when they found out what she had done with their clothes.

Out of desperation, and in the lack of late night clothing shops open in the small town they were staying in, Botan had snuck into each of the boys' rooms and taken items of their clothing to piece together an outfit that she thought might make her look like a sort of tough demon who should not be messed with. Of course, she already knew that she was relying too heavily on being judged on her appearance, as she was not exactly giving off any sort of demonic aura; but she hoped that she had done enough to get to where she needed to be.

In the distance she could just see a jagged black shape on the horizon. It looked a little bit like the impressive building she had been taken to by the border patrol the last time she had arrived in demon world, and since that had been where she had found Hiei, she had to assume that it was Mukuro's fortress that Kurama had spoken of. And so, her concept of time across the three worlds thrown into disarray, Botan checked about herself carefully to ensure that she was not being watched before summoning her oar and leaping onto it again.

As she started to fly towards the horizon Botan began to feel a little drowsy, whether from lack of sleep or the effects of passing through the portal she could not be sure. But her determination not to fail in her task to retrieve the mystic whistle gave her the strength she needed to push onwards.

* * *

Botan tried to keep her head up and tried to tell herself that her situation could be far worse; though as she looked up towards the ceiling and saw a bloodshot eyeball glaring down at her from the very fabric of the roof she began to wonder if she had made the right decision after all. Maybe admitting failure, taking her punishment from Lord Koenma and being stripped of the title of assistant to the spirit detective was better than being frogmarched through the corridors of a terrible fortress in the heart of demon world, forced to walk at an unnaturally quick pace, being jabbed in the back between her shoulder-blades by the handle of a spear every time she dared slow down in the slightest.

But, she told herself as the demon ahead of her turned a corner and she obediently followed, it was too late for regrets now.

Ahead of her the demon opened a door and the demon behind her poked her in the back again, sending her stumbling into the room beyond. The room was mostly dark, though it looked much like the corridors of the fortress itself had: as much like the intestines of some manner of giant beast as the interior of a building. Botan kept stumbling until the jabbing at her back stopped, whereupon she began struggling against the ties holding her wrists together at her back, which seemed ridiculously unnecessary considering she had been taken from the air by two enormous brutes who could probably devour her in two easy bites of their massive jaws.

"We found this flying about outside," one of the demons announced.

Botan's attention locked onto a large white shape at the back of the room, an object that was somewhere between a bed and an over-sized armchair, a mild panic washing over her as she saw a figure rousing from the centre of it. She was then unsure if she ought to be pleased or distraught as she saw that the figure standing up and approaching her was in fact Mukuro.

"Hm," Mukuro muttered, slowly and purposefully raking her eyes over Botan as she came to a halt in front of her. "And what manner of creature are you?"

Botan pursed her lips for a second as she inwardly reminded herself to give a sensible response. Her instinct was to pull a kitty face and say something endearing, but she doubted that those tactics would work on a hard-hearted woman like Mukuro. This situation, she thought to herself, was going to take tact. This situation was going to be a real test of her abilities: she had been made to appease many souls during her career as a ferry girl, even some as terrifying as the mightiest of demons, so this was really her time to use that training and show what she was made of.

"To me it seems like you are a human," Mukuro continued.

"Bingo!" Botan said brightly. "You've won the prize!"

Mukuro's face dropped. Botan failed to notice.

"I am in fact in a human body," she continued. "Though some people say I was born as troublesome little kitten! Meow!"

Botan pulled her best cat face and wriggled her shoulders, unable to paw at the air since her hands were still bound together behind her back. Mukuro muttered something that sounded like a vague promise of suicide if Botan continued, but again Botan brushed it off.

"And this little kitty has got herself a little bit lost, you see!" she said.

"Is this a joke?" Mukuro asked flatly, looking over one of Botan's shoulders.

"Oh heavens, no!" Botan answered her. "I wouldn't play a joke on you, Lady Mukuro, that would just be mean!"

Mukuro ran her eyes over Botan again before looking over her shoulder again.

"Fetch Hiei," she said. "And you, untie her and then leave."

Botan heard one of the two demons who had brought her leaving the room, then felt the other slice through the ties around her wrists. She happily brought her hands back around in front of herself, rubbing at the red imprints that had been left there.

"Thank you very much!" she said sweetly to Mukuro, before yelping as the second demon left the room, banging the door shut behind himself.

"I'm not really sure how you got here, but you certainly won't be staying here long," Mukuro answered her.

"Oh well, that is rather a pity," Botan said, looking sad. "I would have liked to get to know you. I would be fascinated to know what it's like to be able to beat Hiei in a fight."

Mukuro's face twisted, but before she could respond the door behind Botan opened again.

"This creature seems to know you, Hiei," Mukuro said, keeping her eyes on Botan as she spoke.

From the corner of one eye Botan saw Hiei come to a stop, facing them both. The look on his face was indescribable, and Botan wanted to turn towards him fully to see just what he was thinking: but she was still a little bit afraid of Mukuro, and unwilling to break eye contact with her just yet.

"I can't understand why, though," Mukuro said casually. "She's not any sort of demon. In fact, she seems quite weak. Quite fragile."

Botan grinned nervously, but Mukuro only looked displeased with this response, and turned her head to look at Hiei instead.

"Is this one of your human friends?" she asked.

"Hn, I've never seen her before in my life," Hiei coldly replied.

Botan's head snapped around and she fixed her eyes onto Hiei. How dare he deny knowing her?

"You must know why I'm here, Hiei," she said.

Hiei stared blankly back at her.

"I need the mystic whistle," she added.

Hiei's face briefly showed signs of panic, but only briefly.

"Interesting," Mukuro muttered.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Hiei said, turning to Mukuro. "I don't even know who or what she is. I've never seen such an abomination walking and talking before."

Botan huffed angrily, but then an idea occurred to her.

"Hiei, it's me!" she whispered to him. "I'm wearing a clever disguise! I thought I should try to blend in to help me find you! I know I look like a demon warrior, but it's really me, Botan!"

Hiei met her eyes at last, the look he gave her being easily one of the most condescending ever. In fact, it was the sort of look that clearly showed that he believed what she was saying and doing was the most stupid she had ever been in his eyes.

"I'm wearing different clothes, and I changed my hair," she added, flicking her head to bring her braid around to fall over one shoulder.

"I believe cleansing the minds of the mentally weak is your duty, Hiei," Mukuro said through a sigh.

"I don't know how this thing got past the patrol," Hiei answered her.

"Interesting," Mukuro said with a nod. "And you've definitely never seen her before?"

"Definitely," Hiei confidently replied.

Mukuro nodded again before leaning towards Botan and sniffing at her shoulder. She then walked over to Hiei and sniffed at his hair.

"Interesting," she said.

Hiei turned his head away and Botan could not see his reaction, though she was feeling increasingly confused by the whole affair.

"On you go then," Mukuro said, pointing at the door. "Take her back to the rest of your friends. But this time don't take four days to come back."

Hiei hesitated for a little longer before turning and marching boldly towards Botan. He grabbed her arm painfully and dragged her towards the door with so much force she had no choice but to follow after him.

"Goodbye Lady Mukuro!" she called back over her shoulder. "It was lovely meeting you! I think you're a wonderful lady, beautiful, smart and strong!"

The door swung shut halfway through Botan's last word, but she was sure that Mukuro must have heard her.

"What a nice lady!" she said to Hiei as they hurried down the corridor together.

Hiei said nothing, but apparently he chose to move faster because Botan found herself being forced to run to keep up with him.

"This is a very unusual fortress," she commented as they passed by a wall embedded with a mouth. "It's almost alive, isn't it?"

Before long they were outside again and again Hiei began to move faster.

"Hiei!" Botan screamed, sprinting after him desperately.

He did not stop until they were in the thick of a forest, where he released her so suddenly she fell over, almost rolling right over with the momentum that had been carrying her along.

"Goodness Hiei!" she gasped as she stood up again unsteadily, her head still spinning.

"Humour me," he growled. "Tell me what manner of demon possessed your tiny human brain and made you believe that dressing up like that and coming here was a good idea."

"Oh Hiei, it was nothing of the sort!" she said. "You know I'm here to get the whistle back!"

"No creature is foolish enough to come to a place like this for something so trivial!" he barked.

"This is not a trivial matter, Hiei!" Botan argued. "It's very serious! Now I am not leaving this realm until you return the whistle to me!"

Hiei's eyes ran over her, growing wider as they went.

"Isn't that green outfit Kurama's?" he asked as he met her eyes again.

"Yes," she reluctantly confessed. "I wanted to wear something more demon-y."

"More de… You idiot!"

"Do you like what I did with my hair?"

"I don't care about your stupid hair."

"Oh."

Botan hung her head, but Hiei was not moved.

"Well I need the whistle back, anyway," she said, lifting her head again.

"You can't have it," he replied.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Two reasons. First of all, you will use it. Secondly, I had to hide it. I couldn't carry it around demon world, and since you still have my coat, I couldn't conceal it."

"Ah, well, I have something that might cheer you up, mister grumpy boots!"

Botan reached her hands under Yusuke's sweater – which she had butchered with a pair of scissors to allow her to wear it under Kurama's clothes – and pulled out Hiei's coat, which she had been keeping stowed there.

"Ta-da!" she said shaking it out.

Hiei snatched it from her wordlessly and pulled it on, stuffing his hands into the pockets.

"So," she said. "Can I have my whistle back now?"

"I already told you: I had to hide it," he replied.

"Well can we please go and find it?"

Hiei smirked in a way that made Botan feel queasy.

"I hid it the same way most people hide a precious item they don't want stolen from them," he said slowly.

Botan opened her mouth, her mind filling with a brief recollection of how Yukina had hidden her mother's hiruiseki from her captors after she had been abducted by Tarukane.

"Something as large as the whistle?" she asked, feeling distinctly more nauseous than before.

"I swallowed it this morning," he replied. "You'll just have to wait."

"Until you…?"

Botan's lip curled in disgust but Hiei merely continued to smirk back at her. She fell to her knees in and her head drooped down. It was still night-time back in the living world – or at least, she thought it was – so maybe she still had time.

She wondered if laxatives worked on demons; though even they did, she would never be able to use the whistle again, or even watch as Ayame or Koenma used it.

"Oh well, I suppose it can't be helped," she said quietly. "I'll just have to tell Lord Koenma that I failed."

"I'm sure he won't be surprised," Hiei muttered.

Botan wanted to cry. She had been holding onto hope until that moment, and now that she could see that there was none to be had, and that Hiei was being horrible to her, she just wanted to cry. The lack of sleep was doing little to help her situation, but she fought the urge to give in to her emotions.

"It sure would be super if you could give the whistle back some time, Hiei," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on the ground. "If you won't give it to me, maybe you could at least give it to Yusuke, so that he can return it to Lord Koenma."

Hiei said nothing, and Botan wondered if he had already left. He did get bored very easily, and he had certainly seemed bored by her plight. With a small sigh she pushed up one sleeve of Yusuke's sweater, uncovering the point on her arm that Hiei had been holding her by while he dragged her away from Mukuro's fortress. Unsurprisingly, she had a handprint around her arm that was starting bruise already.

"You're so fragile."

Botan frowned, freezing on the spot. The voice had been so faint it had sounded like an aural illusion, a mere whisper of the wind catching in the branches of the trees overhead.

"Hn, it's ridiculous."

Botan slowly turned her head, finding Hiei was still standing where he had been before, looking down at her, his mouth still moulded into a smirk, but something decidedly different about his eyes.

"Hiei…" she whispered.

"It amuses me that you are so ridiculously weak and you stand before someone as powerful as me and act as though it makes no difference."

Botan lowered her head, staring at the ground. She let her sleeve slide down her arm again, an unusual sensation washing over her. It was as though she had been standing in a room and thought that she knew everything about it, but suddenly a light had been switched on and thrown everything into an entirely different perspective. Suddenly everything made sense, but at the same time nothing did.

"I see," she said, rising to her feet. "I understand now."

"What are you talking about?" Hiei asked, a slight sense of apprehension in his tone.

She started towards him and he took a step back, looking up at her warily. She smiled calmly as she approached him, ignoring the fact that he took another step back and began to look a little angry. She decided to take the advice that he had given her himself: if she wanted it, she was going to have to do whatever it took to get it back.

"I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do," she said gently, placing her hands on his shoulders and slowly leaning her weight onto them. "I hope you won't hate me for it."

Hiei just had time to grunt out a noise of complaint before she leaned over him and caught his lips in hers. At first he twitched against her and growled in the back of his throat, but she persisted, kissing his lips in the exact way that he had never done to her: tenderly. After his initial growling and twitching he lifted his chin and tried to push against her harder but she used her advantage of height to pull back a little, leaning her weight down hard on his shoulders again to hold him in place. He growled again, but eventually surrendered, even allowing her to gently suck on his top lip; and at that point she felt what she had been waiting for: Hiei relaxed his shoulders.

Botan quickly moved her hands to his hair, clawing her fingers through it, a little surprised when Hiei moaned at her touch, the vibration of the noise passing through his lips to hers. She felt his tongue pressing against her lower lip and she began to think that maybe she had gone too far, the moment certainly was not playing out as she had expected it to.

Quickly she broke contact, leaping back from him. Hiei grabbed out with both hands, his arms closing around the empty space she had been occupying moments ago. His eyes opened and his mouth twitched, his face quickly darkening in anger.

"You asked for that," she said haughtily, summoning her oar. "Consider that a lesson in how to kiss a girl. Maybe next time you'll think before you… Kiss a girl again."

Botan hopped up onto her oar and rose up above Hiei's head before allowing herself to grin down at him.

"Oh and Hiei?" she said sweetly. "One more lesson: you've been spending too much time around Kurama."

"What?" he grunted.

"Hiding things in your hair?" she replied.

Botan held up two fingers in the peace sign just as he had done to her earlier that day, showing him that she had the mystic whistle between her fingers. Hiei snarled out a noise that made Botan scream and on instinct she shot up into the air. He leapt up after her, batting a hand at her. His fingers slapped against the blade of her oar, causing her to wobble in the air, but she quickly righted herself.

Looking down, she saw that he was rapidly climbing a very tall tree.

"Oopsie, time for this little kitty to get going!" she said, before zipping off as fast as she could away from Mukuro's fortress.

She sighed in relief as she rocketed through the air, looking down at the mystic whistle with a smile of delight. She had been so miserable only moments ago but now she could not be happier. She had the mystic whistle, she had put Hiei in his place and she finally understood why he had been acting so strangely around her lately.

Botan almost fell out of the air.

With a strain of effort she righted herself, but she could not stop the sweat and laboured breathing that followed as she remembered where she had found the courage to confront Hiei. As she flew on she dared to allow herself to think about it a little more, but she wanted to deny it whenever it rose in her mind.

She was going to need some professional guidance to help her decide what to think on this one.

* * *

Shizuru groaned, rolling over in her bed. She cracked one eye open a little to check the clock on her nightstand, which informed her that it was barely quarter past three in the morning. She turned over and bunched her pillow up under her head, but again she heard the tapping sound that had awoken her in the first place. She cursed her younger brother for not cutting back the tree in the back garden before heading off to university the year before and pushed her entire face into the pillow; but the noise came again, this time a little harder and more rhythmic.

Shizuru peeked over her pillow with one squinted eye, soon finding herself wide awake as she spotted the silhouette of a figure dressed in baggy, mismatched clothing, one hand supporting an oar, the handle of which was being infrequently rapped against the sliding glass doors at the end of her room. As she watched the figure waved a hand at her before pawing at the air in a way that was all too familiar.

"Botan," Shizuru concluded aloud.

She pushed herself up and switched on the light on her bedside table before pushing aside her covers and rising from her bed. She stretched her arms above her head as she dragged her feet towards the door, trying to ignore the brilliant grin Botan was giving her through the glass.

"Hey girl, this had better be important," Shizuru greeted her as she opened the door.

"It's very important," Botan immediately replied, pushing her way through the small gap Shizuru had created.

Shizuru turned to watch Botan walk boldly into her room, leaving a series of blackened footprints on the carpet as she went.

"Please, come in," Shizuru muttered sarcastically, before pulling the door closed again.

"This is a lovely room!" Botan said, spinning around to face her.

"Yes it is," Shizuru replied. "In my lovely parents' house. And they probably won't be in such a lovely mood if they wake up to find me entertaining guests at this lovely hour. Keep your voice down."

"Oopsie!" Botan whispered. "Oh I am sorry, Shizuru!"

"That's okay. Now what's happening? Why are you here? And what the hell are you wearing? You look like a reject from a culture festival. The colours are even more psychedelic than your usual choices. And that's… Hey, aren't those my brother's lucky sweatpants?"

"Yes, well, something unusual has happened."

Botan swiftly stepped out of Shizuru's reach as she tried to grab at the loose material hanging around Botan's thighs.

"Right…" Shizuru said, sitting onto the edge of her bed.

"The boys are all working on a mission from Lord Koenma–"

"What?"

Botan stopped short, watching Shizuru frown at her questioningly, an open packet of cigarettes in her hand.

"My baby brother is working for spirit world again?" she asked.

Botan nodded slowly.

"Yes…" she said. "I remember now that he said he forgot to tell you about that…"

"Typical," Shizuru said, rolling her eyes.

Botan paced back and forth a few times, creating a thick line of dirt as she went. Shizuru tried to ignore it, instead lighting a cigarette and trying not to think the worst about what the others might be up to.

"They're doing very well," Botan tried.

"Yeah, well, I knew my brother would be getting involved with the old gang sooner or later," Shizuru said through a cloud of smoke. "The next demon world tournament is coming up, right?"

"Yes, that's right!" Botan replied, clapping her hands together.

"Volume down, sunshine," Shizuru reminded her.

"Oh yes of course, sorry. Again."

"So, forgetting about your tasteful outfit – because frankly I would rather not know any more about it – why are you here, Botan?"

"Well, I need your advice on something."

"Blue and green don't look good together."

Botan looked down at herself before laughing light-heartedly.

"No, silly, not that!" she said. "It's about a friend of mine."

Shizuru narrowed her eyes slightly but said nothing.

"She's having a bit of bother with a person of the male variety," Botan continued, failing to notice the smirk that her choice of words brought to Shizuru's face. "And I thought that you were the best person to ask because you have had your heart broken so many times."

Shizuru choked on nothing, her face twisting.

"Oh no!" Botan cried. "I didn't mean it like that! Not that you are hopeless in love, not that at all! I came here because you are the opposite of that, or rather because you are–"

"Sweetie, you're getting loud again."

"Sorry."

"Look, it's fine. Who's the boy and what did he do to you?"

"Well, he was quite–wait, what?"

Botan paused, her eyes growing round as she stared at Shizuru in disbelief.

"You can read minds, too?" she asked.

Shizuru gave a short laugh before shaking her head.

"No," she said. "But I can read people."

"I see…"

Botan began fidgeting and chewing at her lip, at which Shizuru held up her packet of cigarettes.

"You want one?" she offered.

"Oh I couldn't," Botan replied. "But thank you all the same."

"You sure?" Shizuru asked. "I think you're old enough now. I mean what are you anyway? About a thousand years old?"

"Who would know?"

Shizuru slowly lowered her hand, her face dropping with her offer.

"You really are a conundrum wrapped up in an enigma, aren't you?" she asked. "You know most people ask for advice on their love lives during daylight hours. And most people don't expect a grim reaper to even have a love life."

"It's not so much a love life, per se," Botan hurriedly replied. "More a sort of misunderstanding involving some kissing, a whistle, a snake and a couple of pearl necklaces."

"Wow," Shizuru said quietly. "We should distil some of that crazy, we could probably sell it by the bottle."

"You see the thing is, this male individual may have sort of kissed me a couple of times," Botan continued, ignoring or else not hearing Shizuru's remark. "Not exactly with my permission – though the first time he did it was because I said I wanted to kiss him, and I suppose he just sort of got there first – and also a friend of his said something about affection, and then I sort of kissed him – only because I had to because of Lord Koenma's whistle – but now I'm worried that I might have started a sort of trend where kissing is acceptable between us, which would be quite awful since the way he kisses is rather unpleasant and could be very embarrassing if any of the others found out."

Shizuru took a long hard drag on her cigarette.

"You're not really making much sense, but I think I get the gist of what's going on," she said slowly. "And so that we're not still here five hours from now trying to make sense of what actually is happening, let me tell you this, and you can see if it helps: if you want to know if a guy likes you or not, the best way to tell is to flirt with one of his friends and see how jealous he gets… Though in your case, I'm not so sure that's a good idea…"

"Flirting?" Botan muttered, adopting a thoughtful look.

"Okay then how about this: try the damsel in distress routine."

Botan's face became even more confused and Shizuru quickly shook her head.

"It's real simple," she assured the worried ferry girl. "You just have to act helpless and see if he comes to rescue you and how concerned he gets when he sees you in danger. And on the bright side, with the line of work you're in, you probably won't even have to fake it."

"Yusuke has always come to my aid when I've needed him," Botan replied. "He even offered to take the blame when I lost the mystic whistle."

"This is about Yusuke?" Shizuru echoed. "Yusuke Urameshi? Does Keiko know?"

"What?"

"Are you saying you've been kissing Yusuke?"

"Goodness me, no!"

Shizuru took another drag from her cigarette before sighing with relief.

"It's not Yusuke…" she muttered. "Wait… Is it one of the "old team"?"

Botan's face twitched slightly and Shizuru began to grin.

"Nice going, girl!" Shizuru said. "I always thought that Kurama was deliciously beautiful too. A bit aloof, but if he likes you then who cares, right?"

Botan looked about herself awkwardly before forcing a nervous grin.

"Not Kurama?" Shizuru asked. "Well it can't be my brother, he's still too obsessed with Yukina! And that doesn't really leave anyone else except Lord Koenma himself. You're not a cradle-snatcher, are you Botan? And in this case it would quite literally be cradle-snatching!"

Botan looked about herself a little before shrugging.

"Not Yusuke, not Kurama, not my brother and not Koenma," Shizuru said. "That doesn't leave anyone, Botan. Not unless you've gone completely crazy and starting kissing Puu!"

Botan laughed a little too hard, making Shizuru all the more suspicious.

"That sounded like something else!" Botan said in a voice of strained amusement.

"I suppose it also depends on who you consider to be the "old team"," Shizuru said, ignoring Botan's last remark. "There were a few others who helped out sometimes, right? Though honestly I can't imagine any of them taking your fancy…"

"It's fine, I'll remember what you said about that "damsel in distress" trick," Botan said, moving rapidly towards the sliding doors. "You're the best Shizuru, I knew I could count on you!"

Botan grabbed the handle and started to pull the door open, but her efforts were cut short as Shizuru suddenly leapt off her bed and pounced at her, catching the door before it could open wide enough for Botan to make her escape.

"Hey, you're not talking about that really moody little guy, are you?" she asked.

"Moody… What?" Botan responded, trying to keep the panic out of her eyes.

"Yeah, you know the one I mean!" Shizuru continued. "The short guy with the short temper! The one my brother really, really hates. Yukina's brother!"

"Uh…"

Botan's face dropped despite her best efforts to hide her true feelings.

"Seriously?" Shizuru asked, raising her eyebrows. "That's weird, he always seemed like he hated everyone and everything. He was so dark and brooding and sarcastic and nasty and you're so… Vanilla…"

"Well, you know what they say about the importance of sleep!" Botan said cheerfully, yanking the door from Shizuru's grasp and slipping out onto the balcony. "Thanks for your time, and have pleasant dreams!"

Shizuru slowly stepped out after her, tilting her head back as Botan became airborne.

"Be careful what you're doing," she called after her. "You might end up biting off more than you can chew with an unpredictable guy like that!"

Botan waved at Shizuru, whether in thanks, goodbye or to dismiss what she had said Shizuru could not be sure.

"Huh," she said as she watched Botan disappear against the night sky. "I wonder what trouble my little brother's got himself into this time."

* * *

Hiei hopped off of the transport, waving an arm for it to continue without him. He could see a human lying prostrate in the bushes nearby, but this was one human he could not afford to wake up around any of his fellow border patrol guards. Even though he could only see the lower half of the human's body, he already knew it was that loutish clown that liked to hang around Yusuke and Kurama.

He walked over and swung a kick at one of the legs protruding from the bushes, grunting in alarm as his leg missed his target and swung up above his head, pulling the rest of his body with it. He swung and spun a little in the air before slowing to a halt, finding himself hanging upside down by one ankle.

Well, this was new.

Hiei pulled out his sword and swung it at the vine tied around his ankle, hissing as the blade clanged off of the plant without so much as making a dent in it.

"Hey, little fella!" a familiar voice called out.

Hiei growled, dropping his head back down to reveal an upside-down former spirit detective grinning at him.

"Apologies for the ruse, Hiei, but you left us with no other option," Kurama said, stepping into his line of vision.

"Hey short stuff," the fool said, sitting up amongst the foliage. "Nursing a hangover or are ya still a little bit tipsy?"

"I don't get drunk," Hiei flatly answered him. "And if this thing doesn't let go of me soon, I'll make you all regret it."

"Are you sure?" the idiot asked. "Because a little guy like you probably can't really hold your drink, right?"

"Kuwabara, what's your point?" Yusuke demanded.

"I brought a drink I thought might be better for little hamster legs," the clown replied, producing a white bottle from nowhere. "See? It's milk!"

"What?" Yusuke echoed.

"Because he's so small, get it? If he drinks this, he might grow up to be a big strong boy!"

"Damn it fox, let me down!" Hiei roared, fixing his eyes onto Kurama.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Hiei," Kurama replied in his infuriatingly calm voice. "It is our understanding that you have something that you should not, and I cannot release you until you return it to its rightful owner."

Hiei narrowed his eyes, folding his arms across his chest. Kurama had been a self-righteous bastard ever since Yukina had given Hiei her hirui stone, and now he was trying to tell him to give it back?

"Not your concern, let me down," he said.

"Look Hiei, we just need Botan's dumb whistle back," Yusuke said.

"I don't have that," Hiei replied.

"We already know you do, so give it back already," Yusuke argued.

"I don't have it," Hiei said forcefully. "The stupid ferry girl came here last night and took it back off me."

All three of Hiei's captors looked shocked, even the normally cool and collected Kurama.

"Botan came here?" the idiot asked.

"Let me down," Hiei insisted, glaring at Kurama.

The fox looked unwilling to comply, but a second later Hiei hit the ground headfirst, crumpling in a heap in front of the clown who was still sitting on the ground.

"Here you go, little fella!" he said, holding out the white bottle he held.

"Kuwabara, where did you even get a bottle of milk from?" Yusuke asked. "And why the hell would you bring something like that into demon world?"

"Hn, because he's an idiot," Hiei grunted as he stood up and shook the dirt from his hair.

"I've got another one," the idiot said, as if on cue. "Where do you guys reckon Hiei buys his clothes? In the kids' department, or does he just wear doll's clothes?"

"I hope you enjoyed those words, because they will be your last!" Hiei snarled, rounding on the orange-haired buffoon.

"Hiei, please," Kurama said, stepping into his path.

"Is that a long coat or a little girl's dress?" the clown said.

"Such caustic wit," Hiei snapped irritably. "Excuse me if I don't laugh, only my ribs are still aching from your last quip."

The fox smiled at him in a positively infuriating manner.

"Do you live in a miniature house too?" the idiot asked. "I mean, if I came to your house, if I was standing outside your house, which would be taller: me or the house?"

"Why do you keep this wretched waste of a living soul around?" Hiei asked, turning to the former detective.

"Sometimes he does useful things," Yusuke replied. "And he's only here in demon world because you ran off and we needed a third person for what we plan to do today."

Hiei ignored the clown's complaints, focussing his attention on the other two. Maybe going with them would be slightly less boring than continuing with patrol duty for the day.

"Thank you Hiei, your help is much appreciated," Kurama said.

Hiei scowled up at him, unsure if the fox had sensed his change of mind or just said as much to force his hand.

"Fine," he agreed. "I'll help you. But only because I pity you for being so desperate that you brought that blubbering bovine with you."

"What did you call me, you little mouse?"

"It's just like old times," Kurama said.

"That's not funny," Hiei told him.

"I never intended it to be."

"Hn. Of course not. So tell me something that is interesting: what exactly do you plan to do today?"

"We're going to spy on Yomi."

Hiei turned sharply to Kurama, glaring at him in horrified disbelief.

"You see Hiei?" the fox said. "That's not boring at all now is it?"

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Keiko calls the gang with some news that leave than all a little panicked, and ultimately leaves Hiei a little "tied up". **Chapter 9: The Guilty**.


	9. The Guilty

**Recap:** Botan kissed Hiei to get the mystic whistle back and then consulted Shizuru for advice on her situation with Hiei. Meanwhile in demon world, the team went off to spy on Yomi.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: The Guilty**

Botan sat alone at a table for four in the small restaurant in the hotel the team were staying at. She had been waiting for the others for almost an hour, and she was beginning to think that the waiter was losing his patience with her; he had mentioned to her five times already that one person holding a four-seat table was unreasonable and a potential loss of money for the restaurant. He had also suggested to her that she might not have been stood up if she did not have such greasy hair: and despite her attempts to explain that it was residual hair gel that she had already tried to wash out, he continued to glower at her every time he passed her table.

She sighed and began drumming her fingers against the table, but soon stopped again as she heard the waiter make an agitated noise at her. She contemplated calling Yusuke on her communicator, but she was worried that the waiter might insist she leave the table – he had already suggested she should go outside and call her friends, but she had refused as she suspected that this was just a thinly-veiled ruse to get her to vacate the table. For the very same reason, she had only drunk half the glass of water she had ordered.

Just as Botan was about to give up and walk out, she finally spotted Kuwabara's curly red hair above the partition between the restaurant and the bar and she found her smile again. The waiter brought the others over to join her, looking even more annoyed with her than before.

"I'm so sorry my friends were late," she said to him as he reached her table.

"And I'm so sorry you can't count," he tightly replied.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Botan turned her attention to the team, watching as Kuwabara and Yusuke gladly sat down at the table. Kurama moved to another table and began dragging over a chair, apparently not noticing the death glare he received from the waiter for his actions. He then arranged the chair by a corner of the table and sat into it, leaving the chair opposite Botan vacant. She started to ask Kurama why he had done what he had but stopped herself as Hiei suddenly dropped himself into the chair across from her, glaring over at her with his usual air of unpleasantness.

Yusuke began ordering drinks for everyone, but neither Botan nor Hiei moved or spoke as he asked the others what they wanted. Once the waiter had left again Kuwabara cleared his throat and leaned over towards Yusuke and Kurama.

"Awkward…" he said quietly.

Yusuke shot him a warning glare before turning to Botan and trying to look casual.

"So Botan, everything okay here and in spirit world today?" he asked.

Botan wanted to answer him, but she found that she could not move her eyes from Hiei's, and as long as she was looking at Hiei, she was unable to speak.

"We had a busy day in demon world," Yusuke continued. "Really busy…"

"Hey Botan," Kuwabara said. "I hear you had a busy night in demon world last night."

Botan turned from Hiei towards Kuwabara, as both the implication of his words and the fact that Hiei had turned from her made her look his way. Kuwabara let out a groan and slouched forwards slightly before scowling at Yusuke.

"Urameshi!" he growled. "What did you do that for?"

"Let's just eat, I'm starved," Yusuke said, picking up a menu. "And then let's all just call it a night, because I'm tired, too."

"An early night?" Kuwabara echoed. "Hey, how are five people getting into four rooms?"

Yusuke muttered a death threat in Kuwabara's direction that Hiei himself would have been proud of before glancing at Kurama as though expecting him to provide an answer to Kuwabara's query. An awkward silence followed, during which nobody looked directly at anybody else.

"I don't need to sleep in this place," Hiei said, breaking the silence.

"Hey, that's right!" Kuwabara said cheerfully. "The little chipmunk likes to sleep in trees, huh?"

Hiei glared at Kuwabara until Kuwabara eventually slunk down behind a menu. The rest of the meal passed in relative silence. Botan wanted to ask Yusuke exactly how he was progressing with the mission, if for no other reason than to be able to report back to Koenma; but any time she lifted her head from her food the first thing she noticed was Hiei, who kept his eyes on her throughout the meal.

When they had all eventually finished, Yusuke made lots of unsubtle stretches and yawning motions before suggesting that everybody go to their respective rooms for the remainder of the day. Botan was beginning to become irritated with his dismissive manner and decided she would tell him as much as soon as she got the chance: but as they all stood from the table, Yusuke's phone began to ring.

"Hey, it's Keiko!" he said before answering the call.

Yusuke was smiling when he greeted his girlfriend, but his face quickly changed, and without a word to Keiko or those around him he ran from the restaurant.

"What the hell was that all about?" Kuwabara asked.

"Perhaps it's something private between Yusuke and Keiko," Kurama suggested.

"Yeah, I know," Kuwabara agreed. "That's why I want to know what's going on."

"Maybe she found out where he spends most of his time when he's in demon world," Hiei muttered.

"Huh?" Kuwabara asked, rounding on him.

Hiei smirked up at Kuwabara but said no more, apparently enjoying the moment as Kuwabara gradually became angry that he had apparently been excluded from another secret the others all shared.

"Hey, Kurama!" Yusuke yelled, leaning in through the doorway of the restaurant. "Get over here!"

"The gentleman, as always," Kurama said dryly. "Excuse me."

He left the others to join Yusuke, offering a short apology to the irate waiter who was berating Yusuke for yelling across other people's tables.

"Now I'm really curious," Kuwabara muttered.

"I hear that curiosity killed the cat," Hiei said, glancing at Botan briefly. "Imagine what it might do to a simple-minded oaf like you."

"I don't expect you to understand, short stack," Kuwabara answered him. "You don't care because Yusuke and Keiko aren't your friends."

"I have no need for such sentimentality," Hiei said.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Kuwabara snorted. "Mister tough guy doesn't need friends."

Kuwabara and Hiei turned away from each other, leaving Botan silently wishing that she had moved a bit quicker to get away from the table: she could have been up in her room away from the awkwardness by now. However the moment was short-lived, as Kurama soon returned, looking as calm as always.

"Botan, Yusuke said that Keiko would like to talk to you," he said.

"Oh, of course!" Botan said cheerfully, hurrying out of the restaurant before anyone could say anything else on the matter.

Outside she found Yusuke standing in the reception area of the hotel, pacing back and forth nervously.

"Yusuke?" she said, walking into his path to halt his pacing. "Is everything alright?"

"No," Yusuke replied. "Something really… Weird has happened. I need you to do something, and you can't ask any questions, you just have to do it."

Botan narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion, but the look on Yusuke's face stopped her from questioning him: he looked genuinely shaken by whatever Keiko had told him.

"I need you to take Kuwabara back to Genkai's on your oar," he said. "Go as fast as you can, and don't stop no matter what. When you get there, I need you to plant this at the top of the steps to the temple. Kurama said with your spirit energy it should grow to full size by tomorrow morning."

Botan glanced back and forth between Yusuke's determined eyes and the oval mauve-coloured seed he was holding between his thumb and forefinger.

"Right now?" she asked.

"Yes right now," he replied. "I'm sorry Botan, but for your own safety, I can't tell you why."

"That's a little bit scary, Yusuke," she said meekly.

"Yes, but I trust you to do this. Oh, I almost forgot: the plant that will grow from this seed is called the vine of the guilty. Kurama said it reacts to impure thoughts, and if it catches you, it can kill you. You should be okay because you're an idiot who only ever thinks good things–"

"Hey!"

"–and Yukina and Puu should be safe too. But keep Kuwabara and Keiko away from it, okay?"

"Yusuke, that's a terrible thing to say about your girlfriend and your best friend!"

"I mean it Botan, this is really important."

"Okay dokay, well you can count on me!"

Botan took the seed from him and nodded her head.

"Good, I'll get Kuwabara out here, and then you leave, immediately, got it?" he said.

"I left some personal things in my room, and what about Kuwabara, won't he need to pack before we leave?" she asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much," Yusuke said. "I think we were robbed at some point. I lost a shirt and all of my hair gel."

Botan paled, but Yusuke did not notice, his eyes still on the restaurant doors.

"I'm going in, get ready to grab Kuwabara and get the hell out of here," he said.

"Alrighty!" she agreed.

Botan smiled at Yusuke, but as he hurried back into the restaurant she could not help but grow nervous: what could possibly have happened back at Genkai's temple to cause him to panic like that? Less than a minute later Yusuke came bustling out of the restaurant again, pushing Kuwabara ahead of him.

"What are you doing, Urameshi?" Kuwabara demanded, trying to dig his heels in as he went.

"Just shut-up and go with Botan," Yusuke insisted.

Botan staggered back out of their way as Yusuke pushed Kuwabara out of the hotel altogether. She then hurried after them, meeting them out on the street.

"What's going on?" Kuwabara demanded.

"No time to explain," Yusuke replied. "Botan?"

Botan nodded, summoning her oar and hopping onto it. Yusuke pushed Kuwabara towards it, and after a few more complaints from both boys, Kuwabara climbed on behind Botan.

"You'd better have a good reason for this, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled, waving a fist at Yusuke as Botan launched into the air.

"Yes, I hope you do," Botan muttered, frowning back down at Yusuke.

* * *

Once they arrived back at Genaki's temple, Botan ordered Kuwabara to go indoors before moving to the top of the steps that connected the temple grounds to the outside world, quickly finding a piece of soil as near to the gate as possible and poking the seed Yusuke had given her into the ground. She covered it over and placed her hands over it, transferring some of her spirit energy into it, wincing in anticipation of something vile sprouting from the ground to devour her as she did so.

To her surprise, nothing happened.

Botan slowly withdrew her hands, the yellow glow of her energy fading. She dared to lean forwards, peering at the disturbed earth she had buried the seed into. When it remained completely still and lifeless, Botan concluded that she had failed to bring the plant to life. Of course, she thought to herself, she lacked the incredible power of Kurama, who probably could have grown a whole forest of the plants in the time it had taken her to fail at raising a single one.

"Botan?"

Botan screamed and leapt into the air, looking about herself fearfully.

"Hey, it's okay, it's only me!"

Botan turned around again and sighed, dragging the back of one muddy hand across her forehead.

"Oh Keiko!" she said breathlessly. "You startled me!"

"I'm sorry Botan," Keiko replied.

"Oh no, that's alright!" Botan assured her. "It's just silly old me, frightened of a seed!"

"A seed?" Keiko asked.

"Yes, Kurama asked Yusuke to ask me to plant it, but it doesn't seem to be working. I don't think I have the strength to make it grow."

"A demon plant? Why would Kurama ask you to plant something like that here?"

"Well, funny you should ask… I was hoping that you would know the answer to that very question."

The two girls exchanged confused looks for several seconds before Keiko shrugged.

"Doesn't make any sense to me," she concluded. "What sort of plant is it, anyway?"

"I think Yusuke said it was called the vine of the guilty," Botan replied. "He said it reacts to impure thoughts."

"Really?" Keiko asked. "So why did you take Kuwabara here too?"

Botan frowned but then laughed.

"Ah I see!" she said. "You were joking!"

Keiko shook her head but Botan appeared not to notice.

"Before we go inside, maybe you can tell me how Yusuke's getting on," Keiko said.

"Oh just splendidly," Botan assured her. "Although I have heard the boys talking about somewhere in demon world that Yusuke likes to go… Some sort of club, I think…?"

Keiko began to growl, though Botan still looked confused.

"He's got some nerve!" she ground out. "He never changes, you know that? When I get my hands on him, I'll…"

Keiko slowly fell quiet, her eyes lowering to her feet. Botan copied her actions, seeing a long, thick, dark green vine sliding around one of Keiko's ankles.

"What's happening?" Keiko muttered.

Botan followed the vine back to the point she had planted the seed, watching curiously as a second vine sprouted and slithered across the ground, expertly avoiding Botan's feet to reach Keiko. As the first vine wound around Keiko's ankle a third time, the second began curling over the top of her foot.

"Botan?" Keiko said warily. "I don't like this!"

"Yes, well, I'm not really sure what's happening, to be honest," Botan replied. "I thought the plant only attacked people with impure thoughts."

"Attacked?" Keiko repeated.

"Yes. I think it can kill."

Keiko cried out in alarm at Botan's words, dropping to a crouch and grabbing at the vine with both hands on either side of her ankle. As soon as she began tugging at the vine more vines sprouted from the original plant and wrapped themselves around her wrists, bringing another cry of alarm from her.

"Don't move!" Botan warned her. "I think it might only get worse if you do."

"This plant has both of my hands and one of my legs," Keiko cried. "How much worse can it possibly get?"

Botan ran her eyes along the vines to their source, which seemed to be pumping them out of the ground, each vine becoming thicker as it grew longer. When she noticed small barbs starting to decorate the length of the vines Botan hurriedly snatched her communicator out of her pocket.

"Yusuke!" she cried, fumbling with the communicator. "Come in, Yusuke!"

The small screen flickered to life and a sleepy Yusuke appeared in front of her, his hair tousled and falling into his eyes after an entire day without any gel.

"What is it, Botan?" he groaned.

"It's about that plant you gave me," she replied. "What should we do if it catches someone?"

Yusuke suddenly looked very awake.

"Where's Kuwabara?" he asked.

"It's not Kuwabara," Botan replied. "It's Keiko. The plant has just sort of got a hold of her, and it won't let go."

Yusuke's face slowly relaxed, and he began to laugh.

"Yusuke, this isn't funny!" Keiko yelled at him.

She then yelped as more vines shot out, faster than before, and caught her arms above her elbows.

"Um, I think Kurama said you have to have good intentions, or else the plant won't stop," Yusuke said.

"Good intentions?" Keiko echoed.

"You need to stop thinking violent thoughts towards Yusuke," Botan advised.

"But I'm not thinking violent thoughts!" Keiko wailed.

"You must be," Yusuke flatly replied.

"Yusuke!" Keiko screamed.

More vines grabbed at her ankles.

"Yusuke, can you get Kurama?" Botan asked.

"I'm already in my bed," Yusuke moaned.

Keiko snarled out a string of unladylike curses that surprised even Yusuke.

"I'm on it," he said.

"Don't worry, Keiko!" Botan said over her shoulder. "We'll have you free in just a jiffy!"

"I sure hope so, Botan," Keiko said tightly. "These things are starting to bite."

"Bite?"

Botan turned and crouched down by Keiko, her eyes widening a little as she saw that the small thorns were starting to hook into Keiko's skin. Looking down to the origin of the plant again, she saw that thicker vines with bigger thorns were approaching, and she had to fight to keep the horror from her face, forcing a reassuring smile for Keiko's benefit.

Through her communicator she heard Yusuke talking to Kurama, and she quickly turned her attention back to them, smiling a little as Kurama squinted against the lights at the communicator, his long red hair still surprisingly smooth despite his face suggesting that he had just woken up.

"Is everything alright?" he asked as he took the communicator from Yusuke.

"No," Botan replied, turning her communicator to show him Keiko's predicament.

"Yes, I see," Kurama said. "Well it should be simple enough to resolve. Keiko needs to relax and clear her mind, and Botan you will need to unwind the vines. They will loosen their hold if Keiko relaxes, but they won't let go entirely. If Keiko does not relax, they will keep attacking and keep tightening their hold."

"Alrighty," Botan agreed. "But the plants seem to be attacking Keiko no matter what she does or says."

"The vines are very sensitive to malicious intent of any kind," Kurama explained. "The plant will not attack you Botan, and it will not harm Yukina, but it will attack anyone else who goes near with even the slightest hint of wickedness on their conscience."

"I'm not wicked!" Keiko protested.

"If you let your anger get the better of you than you might as well be," Kurama smoothly replied. "You must all be careful to stay well away from the plant, and if there are any more mishaps I believe Botan is best qualified to deal with them."

"But why me, Kurama?" Botan asked. "I have bad thoughts too, sometimes!"

"I don't believe you are capable of malice, Botan," Kurama replied.

"You haven't seen her with her baseball bat!" Yusuke called over.

"Even so, Botan's intentions are always good and her thoughts are pure," Kurama insisted. "Now I think you should help Keiko, Botan. Those vines will eventually sprout thorns that can cause significant harm."

"Alrighty, I'm on the case!" Botan said cheerfully.

Botan snapped the communicator shut and knelt down by Keiko, tentatively reaching for the tapered end of the vine wound around one of her upper arms.

"This is sort of like doing a puzzle, isn't it?" she said as she took a hold of the vine.

"Let's just hope Kurama was right about your brain," Keiko said with a wry smile. "If you think a bad thought, this thing might tie you up, too!"

"Oh my, imagine that!" Botan said. "Both of us caught out here! How silly would we look?"

Keiko smiled gently.

"Yeah, I think I'm in safe hands," she said quietly.

Botan began unwinding the vine, surprised to find that, despite its tight hold on Keiko, it became limp as she touched it, loosening further and almost withering away from Keiko altogether. She soon had Keiko's arms and wrists free, relieved to see that the thorns had not broken her skin there.

"I wonder why Kurama thought we needed this thing anyway?" Keiko mused as Botan began freeing one of her ankles.

Botan shrugged.

"It seems a bit severe," Keiko muttered.

"Kurama always knows the right thing to do in times of trouble," Botan replied.

"But this isn't a time of trouble," Keiko said, scratching at her head. "It doesn't make any sense! I don't even understand why Yusuke got so upset when I called him earlier or why he sent you and Kuwabara here."

"He said it was important that I took Kuwabara here and planted that seed," Botan said.

"But why? I asked to talk to Kuwabara on the phone, but he wouldn't let me!"

"That is a bit odd, I suppose."

Botan began unwinding the thickest of the vines, the one that had first caught Keiko, chewing at her lip as she saw a few small red stains on Keiko's socks.

"I am sorry I didn't do this sooner," she said. "I didn't know I could stop it."

"That's alright," Keiko assured her. "I suppose it's my own fault for getting so mad."

"There we are!"

Botan rose to her feet and held out her hands to Keiko. Keiko accepted her offer, allowing her to pull her to her feet.

"I think we should get away from the plant before we do or say anything else," Botan advised.

"Right!" Keiko agreed.

Together they ran back towards the temple, only slowing when they reached the entrance. They both stopped by the door to look back at the vines, most of which had shrivelled and withered back into the ground, a few of the bigger ones still remaining, lying in coils around the base of the plant like dormant snakes, biding their time to strike their next victim.

"How is your ankle?" Botan asked Keiko.

"The thorns didn't get in too deep," Keiko replied, stepping through the doorway. "Unless they're poisonous, I should be alright."

"Hm, perhaps we should have asked Kurama about that…" Botan mused, following after her.

"I was joking, Botan!" Keiko said, sliding the door closed.

"Oh yes, of course!" Botan said, finding her smile again.

"Come on, Yukina will want to see you."

Botan followed Keiko to the lounge area, where they found Yukina and Kuwabara waiting for them. Yukina smiled as she spotted Botan, but Kuwabara looked angry, reminding Botan of the plant outside and what it might do to him if he went near it with such thoughts.

"Hurry up, Botan!" he moaned. "Yukina has something to tell us and she won't say anything until you get in here."

Botan hurried along the last few steps to join them in the centre of the room, smiling encouragingly at Yukina.

"I have wonderful news," Yukina said.

"Really?" Botan echoed in disbelief.

The blissfully happy look on Yukina's face, combined with her opening statement, seemed to be in direct contradiction to Yusuke's attitude a few hours earlier back at the hotel.

"I'm pregnant," Yukina finished.

Botan froze, her entire body and mind going numb.

"What?" Kuwabara yelped. "B-but how?"

Yukina gave him a small frown and he began to turn red.

"But we were so careful!" he whined. "We took all the necessary precautions!"

"What "necessary precautions"?" Keiko echoed, frowning up at him. "You've never even slept with her!"

"That's what I'm talking about!" Kuwabara replied. "All the necessary precautions!"

"You really are a new kind of stupid, Kuwabara," Keiko groaned. "She's an ice maiden: it's an immaculate conception."

"I knew that!" Kuwabara said. "But uh… Just so that I know that you understand, tell me what you think that means."

Keiko sighed and shook her head.

"I see," Botan said, nodding her head slowly. "Yukina must be almost 100 years old."

"What?" Kuwabara echoed. "How dare you say that about my lovely Yukina?"

"It's not an insult, Kuwabara," Botan explained. "You must remember: demons live for many hundreds of years."

"Oh, well that kinda makes things a bit weird when I start to get old and she doesn't…" Kuwabara muttered.

"Welcome to my world," Keiko said flatly.

"Urameshi too?" he asked.

"Well I assume so," she replied.

"Oh…"

"This is unusual though, I didn't think Yukina would still conceive after leaving the ice village," Botan said.

"I wasn't sure either at first," Yukina agreed. "But I'm sure now."

"Yes, and probably when you tell the others, they will jump to the same ignorant conclusions that Kuwabara did…"

"Hey, watch it, Botan!" Kuwabara protested.

"Yes, I see the need for the plant now," Botan continued, ignoring him entirely.

"You do?" Keiko echoed. "Then would you care to fill us in? I thought this would have been a nice, happy thing. Is someone going to come and try to take the baby away?"

"No, but someone will over-react to this in a sort of hot-headed, short-tempered, irrational manner, and no doubt come here with murderous intent seeking Kuwabara's head on a stick."

Kuwabara recoiled from Botan with a noise of alarm.

"You're not making any sense, Botan," Keiko said.

Botan slowly looked around the three faces watching her with mixed levels of confusion. Keiko, Yukina and Kuwabara: none of them knew the one small detail that Botan did.

"Ah," she said with a small nod of her head. "Well this just keeps getting more complicated, doesn't it?"

Botan turned her back on the others to hide the look of worry that warped her face. In her mind she could see Hiei standing on the top of a tree, his jagan eye glowing in the night as he searched out his sister to check on her welfare. The moment he discovered her condition, he was almost guaranteed to assume that Kuwabara was the cause and come for him. Hiei had already proven his impetuous nature many times over, and this was going to be another example of it.

Botan hoped that the vine of the guilty was in the right place to catch him before he reached Kuwabara.

* * *

Botan awoke with a start, a blood-curdling cry setting her nerves on edge. She threw off her sheets and stood up, grabbing at the window above her and pulling it open.

"Someone's in terrible pain, Botan!" Yukina said behind her.

"I know," Botan replied, sticking her head out over the edge of the slanted window to look outside.

Botan had returned to the room she had previously shared with Yukina, and she was glad of her decision now, as the window was mounted in the roof and high enough to see most of the land immediately around the temple, and also it faced towards the gate by the top of the steps. She squinted down at the gate, at first seeing nothing. It was only just starting to get light outside, the sun still below the horizon, and against the trees that lined the steps, it was impossible to make out the vines and if they had caught anything.

"Oh no!" Yukina whimpered behind her. "Botan, it's awful!"

"What?" Botan echoed, looking back over her shoulder at Yukina. "What is it?"

"No…" Yukina whispered, backing away from the window.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, a few falling to the ground and solidifying into colourful pearls. Botan frowned at her, but she soon saw what was making her sob, as a disfigured shadow rose across the wall behind her. Botan's jaw dropped as she watched the dark mass pass over Yukina, the shape of it becoming sickeningly clearer as it went.

"Oh my…" she said in a low voice.

She quickly summoned her oar in one hand and touched the other hand to Yukina's shoulder.

"Listen to me very carefully, Yukina," she said firmly. "You must stay indoors, no matter what. I need you to go and tell Keiko and Kuwabara to stay inside too, can you do that for me?"

Yukina nodded mechanically.

"Don't worry about anything that happens outside, I'll take care of it," Botan added. "But it's extremely important that nobody else leaves the temple, understand?"

Yukina nodded and Botan climbed onto her oar.

"Go and warn the others!" she insisted.

Yukina nodded again and ran from the room. Botan did not hesitate then, pressing her body low to her oar and launching herself out of the open window at break-neck speed. She stayed low to keep herself as aerodynamic as possible, rocketing herself forwards and upwards. She was forced to sway a few times on her way as vines as thick as her arms shoot past her, each one only serving to increase her determination to reach the point they were heading for.

Another cry sounded above her head, and this time she could not decipher what it meant. It sounded like an angered war-cry, but it was laced with hurt – whether physical or emotional she could not be sure. She slowed her speed as she neared her target, surprised to find that it was quite windy outside: in her rush upwards she had not noticed it, but as she slowed she was buffered slightly by gusts that caught the blade of her oar or her loose pyjamas, tugging at her and threatening to set her off course.

When she did eventually reach her target Botan's first thought was that the vine of the guilty had grown to a ridiculous height, the window in the roof of Genkai's temple that she had left from looking like an insignificant speck. Her second thought was that she was going to have to work very quickly, as the plant seemed to be set on killing its victim.

"Get out of my way," a hoarse voice growled.

Botan lifted her head, surprised to see that Hiei was addressing her.

"You're not going anywhere in a hurry," she pointed out.

"Is this your doing?" he asked, his voice still unusually rough. "Or do I owe my thanks to the fox?"

"Hiei, you've misunderstood the situation entirely," Botan said, pushing her hair back as a gust of wind whipped it across her face. "Yukina is an ice maiden, and for an ice–"

"Don't you dare lecture me on my own people like I'm some sort of fool," he cut her off. "I know exactly what's going on here."

"No, I don't think that you do," Botan replied.

"That filthy, mentally-defective, physically deformed wretch put his big, dirty hands somewhere that he shouldn't have," Hiei growled.

"Hiei, I–"

Botan stopped abruptly, dodging to one side as Hiei's sword slipped from his hand. He cursed angrily and tried to grab at it, but the vines expertly bound up his entire hand. Botan took a moment to study where he had been ensnared, noticing a distinct pattern. The vines had caught his ankles and both wrists, but they had mostly concentrated around his right arm, covering it entirely from his shoulder to his fingertips.

The vines were binding up the parts of his body he would use in a fight: apparently they could not only sense bad intentions, but also where on the body they emanated from.

"This thing won't stop me, and neither will you," he snarled out, his hands glowing red.

Botan yelped, scooting back as flames erupted from Hiei's hands, burning through the vines. For a brief moment he seemed to be succeeding, the vines turning to ash against his attack. But within seconds of his flames attacking the vines, more vines began flying up towards them to ensnare him once more. He cried out in rage and Botan cried out in panic as innumerable vines collided with Hiei from every side, winding around his arms and legs and pulling them out at his sides. He growled and strained against the plant, but more vines wound around his neck and chest and even around his forehead, covering his jagan eye.

Botan then remembered that Kurama had warned her that the person ensnared had to relax, or else the vines would only get tighter: and since Hiei was incapable of relaxing, he looked to be in serious trouble. She saw a slight flicker of concern pass over his eyes as the vines squeezed at his chest and neck, but he countered it by powering up and trying to burn off the vines again. The vines responded by tightening and Hiei let out another cry of frustration.

As he fell silent again, Botan noticed a small trickle of blood by the corner of Hiei's mouth. She trailed her eyes over his vine-wrapped form, slowly turning paler as she saw drips of blood escaping from between the vines. The thorns had reached his body, and some were half as long and almost as thick as Botan's little finger.

"Hiei!" she wailed, soaring towards him again. "Hiei, please, you've got to calm down! You'll get yourself killed if you don't!"

"Stupid…" he muttered out, his voice even more hoarse than before.

"Hiei!"

Botan moved as close to him as she could, grabbing an end of a vine by his throat and pulling it back.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, his voice faint but somehow still terrifying. "The plant will catch you too, and it's bad enough being strung up here on my own, I don't want to be strung up next to you!"

"Stop talking," Botan advised him. "Save your breath and concentrate on relaxing."

Botan continued unwinding the vine, keeping one hand on either side of his head, passing the vine back and forth between each hand as she went. She soon had his neck free, but he was still caught around his head and from the shoulders down. She could see several scratches in his skin from the thorns, but she did not have long to concentrate on them as the vine she had just removed began twitching and reaching for Hiei again.

"Hiei, calm down!" she yelled.

He growled at her and the vine shot towards him again. Botan caught it and pulled it back before grabbing at the vine around his forehead. She managed to get it half unwound before another gust of wind caught her off-guard and she dropped a few feet through the air and to one side. As she righted herself she heard Hiei muttering out something and the vine in her hand tugged back, trying to curl around his head again.

"This is hopeless…" she groaned. "I'll be stuck here trying to fix this until Lord Koenma is drawing a pension…"

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Hiei sneered. "I don't like jokes."

"No, I don't suppose you do," Botan replied with a sigh. "But if you will only listen to one thing I say, let it be this: Kurama said that the only way to get free of this plant is to relax until I have unwound it. So if you still want to kill Kuwabara fine, but please don't think about it until I have got you free."

"Hn."

Botan took Hiei's response as an agreement to behave as she had asked him to, and she set about unwinding the vines as quickly as possible. She concentrated first on freeing his head and chest to allow him to breathe before moving to his arms, choosing his left arm first, since the right was covered with more vines than all of the rest of his body put together and would take her much longer to free.

"Why did you do that?" he asked quietly.

Botan pushed her hair out of her face as the wind blew it into her eyes, giving him a questioning look.

"You should have freed my arms first," he added. "That way I could be removing the vines too."

"The vines won't release for your hands," she plainly replied. "And I released your neck first because you were being strangled, I released your head secondly to stop the vines piercing your jagan and then I released your chest so that you could breathe more easily."

"Hn."

Botan paused, a vine draped in her hands, feeling even more confused when she saw that Hiei was smirking at her, his eyes wide, the expression looking almost psychotic.

"Or maybe you prefer me this way," he said.

"What?" she asked.

His smirk widened but he said no more, so she went back to her task of freeing his arm. As there were several vines around his arm, they had become tangled amongst each other, their thorns holding them in knots, making Botan's task all the harder.

"You do realise how this must look?" she asked as she concentrated on unhooking the thorns of one vine from another.

"Of course," he snorted.

"Well then why did you do it?" she asked. "It was very silly of you, really. Seeing you over-react like this is only going to make everyone suspicious of your true motives. Nobody back at that temple knows about your relation to Yukina and right now they will all be wondering why Yukina's condition concerns you."

"I don't understand you."

"It's quite simple: you just came charging in here looking for blood without any apparent motivation. How will you explain this to Yukina?"

"That's not what I meant."

"And surely you realise this is not Kuwabara's doing?"

"Hn, I wouldn't know about that. Yukina was raised by those frigid bitches in the ice village, she knows as much about physical intimacy as they did."

Botan paused again, turning to look at Hiei.

"A society comprised entirely of women, who reproduce automatically without the need for men," he said. "They have no knowledge of what physical intimacy is and what it means, much less what it can lead to."

"A-are you saying that Yukina might have already…" Botan began. "And she doesn't realise because she doesn't understand what it is?"

"Why would she understand what it is? Her people have no need for it."

"Oh, well, I never thought about it like that before, but I suppose you do have a point…"

"Hn, you're so simple-minded."

"I don't have to free you, Hiei, I could just leave you hanging here."

"I don't care what you do."

Botan sighed and turned back to her task, soon freeing the lower half of his left arm. He flexed his fingers, the sinews of his arms twitching, opening small cuts the thorns had made over his skin. He was not wearing his coat, his upper body covered only in a vest, leaving his arms bare and exposed. Botan gave a small shudder as she thought about his other arm: even though it was probably bandaged, it was covered with multiple vines, and a quick glance at it showed that it was still slowly dripping blood. As she turned her head back she caught Hiei giving her a curious look, and it occurred to her that he had probably seen her shivering.

"It's cold up here, in this wind," she lied. "You should have come later in the day, at least then I would have had time to get dressed for this sort of work."

"I don't need your pity," he said, his words reminding her that lying to him was always pointless since he could read her mind – maybe she should have left his jagan eye wrapped up.

"Well good, because I don't think that you deserve it," she said, trying her best to sound admonishing. "I wasn't pitying you anyway, I was pitying myself for having to see all that blood."

Hiei rolled his eyes and turned his head away. Despite his words being no less cruel, Botan had to admit that he had managed to relax his body and calm himself enough for her to successfully remove the vines without them attacking him again. She was unsure if this was progress, if this was him learning some self-control, or if he was just biding his time to try something irrational again once he was completely freed.

"There we are," she said, moving directly in front of him as she finished freeing his left arm. "Doesn't that feel better?"

He took his arm around in front of himself, twirling his wrist and bending his elbow, opening more cuts. Botan watched as small droplets of scarlet blood gathered around the curves of his biceps and slipped down to drip from his elbow. On instinct she pulled one sleeve over her hand and reached over, wiping the blood from his skin, ignoring the horrified look he gave her upon her actions.

"Well at least the thorns didn't cut in too deeply," she said as she finished her task.

She sat back, reaching up both hands to smooth back her hair as the wind caught at it again, billowing it about her head and tugging at her pyjamas. She gave another shiver, this time genuinely because of the cold, lowering her arms and tugging her pyjama top down to stop the wind sneaking up it.

"I am cold!" she insisted when she caught Hiei glaring at her with an unreadable look.

"Yes," he said, his eyes lowering from hers slightly. "I can see that."

Botan yelped and jerked back slightly as more vines rocketed up towards them. At first she was confused: Hiei had not done or said anything violent, and she was sure that he could not have been thinking anything sinister either. The vines first attacked both of his hands, both his freed hand and his bound hand. Then the vines began slithering around the tops of his legs and around his waist. In a matter of seconds both of his hands were covered in balls of green vines and his midsection was almost as thickly wrapped as his right arm.

"That's odd," Botan said, tilting her head to one side curiously. "Why would the vines attack you there?"

She pointed at the concentration of vines around his middle.

"I can understand the vines attacking your hands to stop you punching or launching an attack," she said slowly. "But what sort of harm could you possibly do to me with that part of your body?"

"Untie me and I'll show you," Hiei quietly replied.

Botan lifted her head, frowning at him, the smirk on his face and the gleam in his eyes only serving to confuse her further.

And as she looked at him, two vines appeared from nowhere and slapped him across the mouth, winding their way around his face like a gag.

"You have to stop thinking about biting me, Hiei," she said.

Despite having two vines wrapped over his lips, Botan was sure she saw him smirking again.

Several more vines wound their way around his middle, obscuring his body between his thighs and his hips in a mass of green.

"How strange…" she muttered, scratching at her head. "I wonder what it means?"

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan continues her efforts to free Hiei, Keiko tries to explain the term "immaculate conception" to Kuwabara (without much luck) and Keiko offers Botan a second opinion on how to handle Hiei, which Botan enacts with unexpected consequences. **Chapter 10: The Confession**.


	10. The Confession

**Recap:** Yukina announced that she is pregnant and Hiei over-reacted, ending up caught in one of Kurama's plants placed to stop him from killing Kuwabara.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: The Confession**

"You have to stop thinking about biting me, Hiei," Botan said.

Despite having two vines wrapped over his lips, Botan was sure she saw Hiei smirking again.

Several more vines wound their way around his middle, obscuring his body between his thighs and his hips in a mass of green.

"How strange…" she muttered, scratching at her head. "I wonder what it means?"

Hiei rolled his eyes and Botan shrugged.

"Well let's start again," she said with a smile. "And this time Mister Hiei, try not to think such nasty thoughts."

She took one vine in each hand and carefully freed his mouth, finding that his smirk had vanished.

"You're not making it any easier on me," he snapped.

"Being grouchy won't help either," she warned, taking his left hand and starting her work there over again. "You should think about nice things. Things that make you feel good."

"I was thinking about things that feel good," he muttered.

Botan gasped as another vine slithered past her elbow and snaked its way between Hiei's legs, winding itself up and around his thigh before crossing over in a figure-of-eight to his other leg and then finally snaking up over his hip.

"How very odd indeed!" she said, shaking her head. "I must ask Kurama what that means!"

"If you don't know what that means, you are even more ignorant than those reclusive ice witches," Hiei spat at her.

"I don't know what that means either, Hiei!" she shot back.

"It means you know as much about the facts of life as they do!"

Botan looked about herself before frowning up at Hiei.

"Why are none of the vines attacking you now?" she asked. "You're saying horrible things about the ice maidens! If you have malicious intentions towards them, the vines should be attacking."

"Hn, I wouldn't waste the energy thinking such thoughts about those hags," Hiei said with a smirk. "I don't need to murder them, they've already done that to themselves by choosing that way of life."

"And what way of life is that?"

"A life devoid of feeling."

"Well, I imagine that would be terrible. Of course, you're not at all like that yourself, are you Mister Hiei?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes at Botan and let out a growl, but much to her surprise, no vines came after him. She freed his left hand and began unravelling the vines around his left foot, surprised to find that he was missing a boot. As she worked her way up his leg she soon came to the ball around his mid-section, and she moved away from it again, freeing the lower half of his right leg. She was reluctant to free his right arm and had already decided to leave it until last: though that did raise the question of how he would stay in the air while she unwound the remaining vines. It would be cruel to let him hang by one arm for such a length of time, and she doubted he would want to sit on her oar with her. Maybe she could find a way to get him closer to the ground, she thought.

Botan ducked back a little, studying Hiei carefully as she tried to find which vine she needed to start with to free his mid-section. She swooped forwards again, her hands hovering over his abdomen, absent-mindedly chewing at her lip as she tried to decide between two different vines. She heard Hiei let out a small noise above her, but when she looked up he had turned his head away from her, looking back over one of his shoulders.

It looked like he was sweating, despite the cold.

Botan shrugged and grabbed the thickest vine in both hands, pulling it forwards experimentally. Hiei made a strained groaning sound, the lower half of his body jerking slightly. Botan's initial thought was that she had hurt him somehow and she quickly snatched her hands back, tearing a small gash along the underside of one index finger as she did so. She looked at Hiei, finding him watching her with an almost disbelieving look, his hair sticking to his forehead a little, confirming that he was sweating.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Never better," he bit out sarcastically.

"Alrighty," she said, looking down at her finger. "Those thorns certainly are sharp, aren't they?"

Botan stuck her finger in her mouth, closing her lips around it and sucking gently on it. As she pulled her finger out again her eyebrows lowered into a frown: Hiei appeared to be shocked at something, his face was actually showing his emotions! He held the expression for a few seconds after her finger left her mouth before shutting his eyes tightly and baring his teeth. Botan's eyes widened as she heard the vines creaking in front of her. They were squeezing into him as though he had just had another bad thought, as improbable as that seemed.

"Hiei, you really must learn to control yourself," she said flatly.

"You stupid…" he croaked, his voice slightly higher in pitch than usual. "Do you even think that… Do you even think about it at all?"

"Think about what?" she asked, wiping her finger on her sleeve.

Hiei's jagan opened and fixed onto her. She stared into it, a slight swirling in the back of her head telling her that he was delving into her deepest thoughts in search of something. Maybe he was trying to learn how to stop bad thoughts coming into his head, she decided.

"Damn you, you're insufferable and I hate you!" he snapped, his jagan closing and his own eyes opening.

No vines responded, despite his ragged, angered tone.

"Look at this situation!" he continued, his voice still uneven. "I'm suffering, and you're right there, and when I look into your mind what do I see?"

"It's very rude to just look into my mind without my permission, Hiei," she snootily replied.

"Your head is full of kittens and rainbows and flowers and moonshine and all manners of inconsequential crap!" he roared.

"Well maybe it is," she replied, placing her hands on her hips. "But the vines don't attack me, so maybe you should try thinking about nice things like that for once!"

"Nice things…"

Hiei dipped his head, muttering something indecipherable into his chest before raising it up again to look Botan in the eye.

"This is taking too long," he grumbled.

"And whose fault is that…?" she asked.

"Yours," he snapped. "Coming out here like that and doing things you shouldn't be."

"What?"

"Just… Since you're so "cold", why don't you go and put on a coat or something that at least doesn't make you look quite so… Pert."

"Pert?"

"Just… Get out of my sight!"

Hiei swung his free arm at her as if aiming to backhand her, but to her surprise, the vines did not react.

"It's a very strange plant," she mused aloud. "Maybe I planted it wrong. Or maybe it's defective because it was grown with my spirit energy instead of Kurama's… Well anyway, I can't leave you hanging here, you're bleeding, I have to get you free."

"Just leave me, I'm fine."

Botan watched Hiei patiently, but he purposely avoided looking directly at her.

"Well maybe I will leave you here," she said. "Maybe it will teach you a lesson in patience."

He grunted out a curse, but Botan ignored it, turning her back on him and dipping her oar down towards the ground. She felt a little disappointed that he was refusing her help after she had gone to such great lengths to get to him and effectively save his life before the plant strangled it out of him: but she supposed that she ought not to be surprised, since he was still Hiei, and he had never been grateful for anything any of the others had done for him either.

Once she reached the ground Botan slid off of her oar and it vanished behind her. She paused to look up the length of the vines to Hiei's prone form far above her. The sun was coming up in the sky by then, making him more easily visible. As much as she disliked his lack of gratitude, the guilt she felt for leaving him in such a way was far worse, and so she grabbed the main vine in both hands and began tugging downwards.

The vine lost some of its firmness in her grip, but it would not lower, no matter how hard she tried: and the thorns on it were like butcher's knives, forcing her to give up. She sighed in frustration, looking up at Hiei again, smiling in amazement as she saw him slowly lowering towards the ground. She looked down at the base of the plant again and soon saw the reason why.

"Kurama!" she cried. "Yusuke!"

"Hey Botan," Yusuke greeted her. "We got here as soon as we could. We didn't know he was leaving until he had already gone. Is Kuwabara safe?"

"Oh I think so," Botan replied. "I was asleep when Hiei arrived, and I told Yukina to keep Kuwabara and Keiko indoors."

Yusuke nodded, turning to Hiei as he gently landed on the ground in front of them. Yusuke's face twitched and his eyes slowly widened.

"Hey, what the hell?" he said, pointing at Hiei. "Why are the vines only wrapped around right his arm and his crotch?"

Hiei turned his head sharply to one side, where he found Kurama smiling at him knowingly. He turned again, finding himself looking directly at Botan, who was surprised to see that he looked a little bewildered.

"The vines only attack the parts of the body likely to do harm," Kurama said.

"Huh?" Yusuke echoed. "I understand that his arm with the dragon in it is dangerous, but his… Hey, wait a minute…"

Yusuke turned to Botan, slowly grinning.

"I get it!" he said.

"Well I don't," Botan replied. "Not at all. I was hoping Kurama could explain why the vines did that."

"On you go, Kurama," Yusuke said.

"I'm sure Hiei could explain it far more eloquently than I possibly could," Kurama replied.

Hiei tilted his head downwards, hiding his face from them all.

"Oh well, never mind," Botan said with a sigh. "I'm going inside to check on the others."

Botan started back towards the temple, silently contemplating what Hiei had told her about the level of Yukina's naivety: was it possible that her pregnancy was not just a natural occurrence? If not, Hiei really would kill Kuwabara, and then get arrested by spirit world and probably be sentenced to death himself. It was a terrible situation, one she could not bring herself to think about for too long. She was glad when Yusuke joined her by the doors and began joking with her about the vines attacking Keiko, as his light-hearted talk came as a very welcome distraction from her darker thoughts.

Meanwhile, Kurama was still smiling at Hiei, who was still doing his best to hide his face.

"You could make this thing release me," Hiei muttered into his chest.

"Yes, I could," Kurama confirmed. "But I first need to be sure that you will not do something irrational if I do release you."

"Hn."

"And before you ask, I do consider killing Kuwabara to be an irrational action."

Hiei said nothing, standing so still Kurama began to wonder if he was even still breathing. Deciding that this was probably a good indication that Hiei had calmed down, Kurama snapped his fingers at the vines, which loosened and fell from Hiei, receding back into the ground until only a single, thin vine remained, curled around the original source of the seed.

"That was a dirty trick, fox," Hiei said as he looked at his right arm.

His arm had been cut in so many places the black dragon was barely discernible against his skin. His cuts were mercifully shallow though and Kurama knew that Hiei would heal the wounds quickly enough.

"I knew you would overreact," he said. "This was a necessary precaution. No amount of talking would have calmed you when you learned the truth. You respond to everything with your actions. More specifically, you respond with extreme, violent or passionate actions. This seemed like the only way to make you stop and think."

"Like you would have done?" Hiei sneered, peering up at Kurama. "Hn, don't make me laugh. You over-think everything, it is your biggest folly."

"Perhaps we could learn from each other," Kurama replied. "Surely somewhere in the middle is the best approach."

"I'm still going to kill that fool. You know that, don't you?"

"Perhaps you will. But perhaps you should wait just a little longer until you understand all of the facts before you act."

"If he has interfered, the child will be a monster."

"Like you?"

"Exactly like me. So you see, I have thought about this. I want to save Yukina the pain of bearing a child as vicious as I am. She is too gentle for that fate."

"How very altruistic of you."

"Don't patronise me."

Hiei turned away from Kurama and walked over to the top of the steps that led away from the temple grounds. He dropped himself down onto the top step, resting his feet on the step below. He crossed his arms over his knees and looked out across the horizon. Kurama soon took a seat next to him, smiling at him.

"Do you want to talk about why the vines attacked you the way they did?" he asked.

"I don't talk about such things," Hiei grumbled. "You said yourself, I am the sort of person who prefers actions to words. Talking about something like that is a human failing. Maybe you have been in that body for too long."

"Maybe I have," Kurama replied. "Or maybe I haven't. If you won't talk about it, perhaps you'll listen instead."

"Hn."

"I'll take that as a yes. You know, it's okay to care about something, or even about someone. I know you care about Yukina, and you should know that it's not unusual or a great weakness to care about others, in any context."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm trying to tell you that I don't think that anyone would think any less of you if you decided to make a new friend. I know I certainly wouldn't."

"Hn."

"But maybe, as you say, I've been in this body for too long."

Kurama stood up again and turned back towards the temple.

"I think I'll join the others for breakfast," he said. "And I'm sure everyone would be glad to see you there too."

Hiei grunted and sunk his head lower. Kurama shrugged and walked back to the temple without him, wondering as he went if Hiei would make it past the vine of the guilty this time around.

* * *

"It's parthenogenesis," Keiko said.

"It's parthy-what?" Kuwabara echoed.

"It's like how some types of snails and lizards reproduce," Keiko said. "Like in that film, Jurassic Park."

"Now you're comparing my lovely Yukina to a snail and a lizard?" Kuwabara growled at her.

"Not literally," she replied. "Well yes literally, but not in the way you think."

"You're making this even more confusing," he muttered.

"I'm trying to help you!" she protested.

"Well you're failing."

Keiko took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying her best to keep calm.

"You're an idiot," she concluded. "I give up."

She turned to find Yusuke watching her with an amused grin.

"Don't say it," she said flatly. "I know you already told me that I was wasting my time. I just thought that maybe he would understand if I explained it in a way he could relate to. He gets quite good grades nowadays and some of the professors have a really high opinion of him. I had hoped that maybe he was a bit smarter."

"Nope," Yusuke said, shaking his head. "He's still an idiot."

Kuwabara started arguing his intelligence, but Yusuke quickly cut him off.

"We need to get moving," he said. "I know we're all tired but we can't waste time trying to explain obvious things to you over and over."

Kuwabara scowled at him but said nothing.

"Do you have to go right now?" Keiko asked.

"Yeah," Yusuke replied. "I think we should travel back to the hotel and go to demon world from there… Which is where we have a bit of a problem. I don't have enough money for the fare back. I spent most of what I had coming here after Hiei. Unless Botan can fit three passengers on her oar with her, we're gonna need to get some more money."

"Why are you looking at me, Yusuke?" Keiko asked, folding her arms.

"Looks like Bank of Yukimura is closed," Yusuke said, turning back to Kuwabara. "How about you? Anyone you can tap for extra funds?"

"I guess I could try calling my sister," he said. "What about Kurama, doesn't he have lots of money?"

"No more than we do," Yusuke replied.

"But I thought he was a thief," Kuwabara said. "Can't he just steal us some money?"

"He's not a thief," Yusuke said sternly. "Not any more, anyway."

"But he still likes shiny things."

"So do you, but that doesn't make you a thief, does it?"

"I guess not."

Yusuke turned away from Keiko and Kuwabara, looking out over the treetops of the forest beyond the temple. From where he stood, the land sloped downwards away from them, the only sign of human intervention being a raised railway line that ran through the lower part of the forest.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Yusuke said, pointing at the railway. "We could jump on a train!"

"Hey, yeah!" Kuwabara agreed. "No, wait, that won't work. We don't have enough money for a train ticket, and the conductor would just kick us off for not paying our fare."

"No, I mean why don't we jump on a train?" Yusuke said, hopping his hands in the air.

"Because the conductor would throw us off for not paying our fare!" Kuwabara said again.

"No, I mean why don't we jump onto the roof of a train?" Yusuke said.

"You idiot! You don't get conductors on the roof of a train!"

"Exactly! That's what makes the plan so flawless!"

"Oh yeah!"

Keiko glanced back and forth between the two boys before sighing quietly to herself.

"And to think: the lord of the underworld chose you two to form half of his team of elite spirit detectives, watching over the fate of humanity," she muttered sarcastically.

Neither Kuwabara nor Yusuke noticed her comment, both too busy congratulating each other on masterminding such a brilliant plan. Keiko rolled her eyes and left them to their idiocy, returning indoors where she found Kurama ending a phone call to his mother.

"Is everything alright?" he asked her as she drew near him.

"Fine," she lied. "Kuwabara and Yusuke have decided to take the train, I guess you should all get going."

"That's strange, I was under the impression they lacked the funds to buy a ticket," Kurama replied.

"They have a better idea," Keiko dryly replied. "One that doesn't need tickets."

Kurama nodded and made his way outside once more, less than surprised to find that Hiei was still sitting by the top of the temple steps, exactly where he had left him before going inside for breakfast.

"Hiei!" he called to him. "We're leaving now."

"Go ahead," Hiei quietly replied, without moving. "I'm sure I can catch you up."

Kurama shrugged and headed back indoors; though he was a little curious to know why Hiei was not eager to be the first to return to demon world.

* * *

"Try not to worry Keiko!" Botan said in her usual, cheerful manner. "I'm sure the boys will be just fine! They'll be back before you even notice them gone!"

"I guess so," Keiko said, still sounding less than convinced. "But I still worry. Distract me."

"Alrighty!" Botan chirped. "How about we play a game?"

"What sort of game?"

"Well Genkai did leave an entire arcade in her basement…"

Keiko rolled her eyes.

"No," she said. "I get enough of those stupid games when I'm with Yusuke. Tell me a story or something."

"Okay dokay, what sort of story would you like?"

"Tell me about ferrying souls. But make sure it's a happy and interesting story."

"Happy and interesting, let's see…"

Botan looked thoughtful for a moment as Keiko paced about the room restlessly. As she passed the window Keiko glanced outside, barely able to make out a dark shape by the top of the temple steps in the middle distance.

"Isn't that Hiei?" she asked, stopping to point out the window.

"What?" Botan echoed. "No, it can't be, the others left half an hour ago!"

Botan moved over to the window, peering out for herself.

"It looks like it could be him," she agreed. "I wonder why he's still here?"

Keiko smiled, suddenly finding the distraction she had been looking for.

"Maybe he's waiting for you, Botan," she said.

"Oh no, I don't think so," Botan innocently replied. "He knows I won't be going to demon world today."

"Maybe he's waiting for his goodbye kiss?"

Botan turned pale and then flushed red, her head slowly turning to face Keiko, who's smile had turned into a dark grin that was worthy of Yusuke Urameshi himself.

"Don't be silly!" Botan laughed nervously. "Hiei doesn't… And I don't… Have you been speaking to Shizuru?"

"Shizuru?" Keiko echoed, her grin vanishing. "When did you see her?"

"I went to see her the night before last," Botan replied. "I needed advice."

"Advice? On Hiei? Again? What's happened now? Has he tried to kiss you again?"

"Yes. He kissed me once more after the first time I told you about, and then the night before last, I went to demon world and sort of kissed him."

Keiko's jaw dropped. This distraction was so good, she barely remembered what it was that she had wanted a distraction from to begin with.

"You kissed him?" she asked carefully.

"Yes, but I had to do it," Botan replied awkwardly. "He had me cornered."

"Cornered?" Keiko yelped.

"Oh no, not literally!" Botan hurriedly assured her. "He had my whistle, and it was the only way I could get it back. He said he had put it in his stomach, but I found it in his hair."

Keiko started to frown.

"And then I went to see Shizuru," Botan continued. "She said that I should try the "damsel in distress" technique to find out what Hiei really thinks about me. I think I messed that up a little bit though, because this morning he was the one in distress and I was the one who had to rescue him… Oh dear, I wonder what I should do now?"

Keiko pushed aside the confusing parts of Botan's speech and picked out the one part that had been worryingly clear.

"Why did Shizuru tell you to "try the damsel in distress technique"?" she asked. "Isn't that a bit… Redundant, considering what the guys do all the time?"

Botan shrugged.

"She said it would make him show his feelings," she said.

"You're trying to make Hiei show his feelings?" Keiko asked.

"Yes," Botan replied.

"Hiei?"

"Yes."

"The same guy who turned an opponent into a shadow during the dark tournament?"

"Yes."

"The same guy who stole from spirit world and had a reputation as a brutal murderer?"

"Yes."

"The same guy who once said that he expresses his feelings through violence."

"Yes."

"Right…"

Keiko watched Botan warily for any sign of fear or apprehension, but the pink-eyed open face merely stared back at her as innocently as always.

"You don't think that might be dangerous at all?" she asked slowly.

"Dangerous?" Botan repeated.

"Yes," Keiko said. "Trying to make Hiei express himself when he likes to express himself with anger. Didn't you say that he tried to obliterate Mukuro, the lady he works for?"

"Yes, they fought in the third round of the last demon world tournament," Botan replied. "Hiei unleashed the dragon of the darkness flame, but Mukuro was able to fight it off. It was very close though."

"And even knowing that, you're still not afraid of pushing him to show his feelings?"

"No."

"Okay."

Keiko nodded slowly, trying her best to hide her true feelings: apparently Botan was out of her mind.

"Well personally, I wouldn't have suggested the "damsel in distress" approach," she said, looking out the window at Hiei's silhouette by the gate. "Mainly because I wouldn't rely on a guy like that to rescue me in time," she added under her breath.

"What?" Botan echoed.

"I was just thinking aloud," Keiko assured her. "And I was just thinking that with a guy like that, the best approach is probably a direct one. Most guys don't understand subtle advances, so I would say that a guy as blunt as Hiei definitely won't."

"A direct approach, of course!" Botan said, smacking her fist into her open palm. "A splendid idea, Keiko! But… What exactly would a direct approach be?"

"Make a move. You said you kissed him already, and you obviously got some sort of reaction out of him before you went to Shizuru for advice, so do it again and see what happens."

"Kiss him?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"So I should just… Go up to him and kiss him?"

"And then run like hell…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

Keiko forced a smile to cover her lie and apparently it was enough because Botan smiled back at her.

"Alrighty then!" she said. "I'll go and try that right now!"

Keiko was momentarily stunned into silence as she watched Botan march confidently from the room. She stood watching the open doorway in awestruck disbelief, only finding the ability to move and talk again as she heard Botan leaving out the front door. She spun around to look out the window, gasping as she saw Botan jogging towards Hiei, her blue ponytail flicking about in the air behind her.

"She's dead," Keiko whispered. "He's going to kill her. And it's all my fault!"

* * *

Botan hummed to herself as she hurried down the garden path towards Hiei. She wondered if he had chosen to stay where he was for fear of awakening the vine of the guilty again: though he probably thought that he could outwit it the next time around, she thought to herself. On her approach to him she noticed something in the grass beyond the demon plant, smiling as the object came into focus.

"Hiei!" she called to Hiei. "I've found something of yours!"

She altered her path to collect the object, but in the few seconds it took her to pick it up and turn around again, Hiei had vanished.

"Hiei!" she yelled.

She saw a nearby tree branch swaying independently of the others and saw a few birds rising into the air a little way beyond it: apparently Hiei was indulging in his hobby of tree-surfing again.

"So sneaky," Botan said with a sigh, summoning her oar. "Though he really should have waited to get this back."

Botan frowned down at the boot in her hand, wondering if it had come off Hiei's foot when the vines had lifted him from the ground or if he had removed it himself in an attempt to shake the plant's attacks. She turned her oar in the direction she thought he was heading and sped off over the treetops, looking down through the branches for any sign of movement to indicate his exact position. He moved so quickly, she thought, it was possible that he was already beyond her reach.

She started to slow down, two thoughts occurring to her: first of all, what exactly was she going to do when she caught up to him? Hand him back the boot, she told herself. But then what? Was she really just going to kiss him as Keiko had suggested? And how was he going to react? Was this really wise?

Botan had almost slowed to a complete halt, losing some of her altitude in her lack on concentration. She was lost in her own thoughts, the overwhelming one being that she could not even understand why she was following after Hiei of all people, expecting that he would actually have any feelings for her.

Suddenly the boot was tugged from her hand. Botan yelped and almost flipped over in the air in her distraction, her heart racing as she righted herself. Once she had achieved a stable hover she looked about herself, eventually spotting Hiei a short way behind her, sitting on a tree branch and pulling on the boot he had just taken from her.

"Hiei, you frightened me!" she shouted over to him.

"Well, that's never a difficult thing to do," he muttered moodily.

Unperturbed by his words or his tone, Botan drifted over to his side, smiling sweetly as him as he secured his boot in place.

"Hiei, would you like me to heal your wounds before you go back to demon world?" she offered, noticing that his arms were still littered with scabs and his clothing tattered, presumably hiding more injuries from the thorns of the vine of the guilty.

"I'm not wounded," he flatly replied. "But you might be if you don't get out of my way."

"I want to ask you a question," Botan hurriedly said. "And I promise I will leave you alone after that. It's very important, and I won't leave you alone until you answer me."

"If answering a question will stop you following me to demon world again then fine," he agreed.

"It's about some of the things that seem to have been happening lately between you and me. I have noticed that there seems to be a sort of–"

"Woman, ask this question. Do it without hesitation, repetition or deviation, understand?"

"Right, sorry Hiei. I guess Keiko was right, you are the sort of guy who likes a direct approach–"

"Woman!"

Hiei leapt up to his feet, finding his balance on the branch effortlessly, his eyes glaring at Botan threateningly.

"Why do we keep kissing each other?"

His face dropped visibly. She shrugged.

"I've never kissed any of the others," she said. "Not even Kuwabara, and he used to have the cutest little crush on me you know. That was before he met Yukina of course, because everybody knows that now he… Oopsie!"

"You kissed me, as I recall," Hiei said quietly.

"Not before you kissed me," Botan pointed out. "Twice, in fact. You kissed me at the portal in the far north, and then you kissed me on the beach."

"You wanted to kiss me!"

"No I didn't! You made me do it!"

Hiei growled and snapped at the air as though threatening her with a bite; but she did not so much as flinch, which only made him all the more irate.

"I can't stand to be around you," he growled through tightly clenched teeth. "I don't understand anything about your inane way of doing things. You don't serve any purpose in anything spirit world asks of us and you contribute nothing when we encounter trouble. You are nothing but Koenma's silly little honey trap."

"His what?" Botan echoed.

"Hn, of course, the silly little ferry girl won't know what that means, will she?"

Botan thought for a moment before smiling brightly.

"I know exactly what you mean!" she said.

"No you don't," Hiei groaned.

"Yes I do!" she insisted. "You're talking about those little glass jars you hang on a string, with a little bit of honey on the bottom to catch flies to stop them ruining your picnic!"

Hiei growled, clenching his fists at his sides.

"It's statements like that that make me hate you so much!" he snarled.

"Oh Hiei, you're being very rude!"

"Rude?"

Hiei growled again, tightening his fists until his fingernails bit into his palms and drew blood.

"Is there a reason you are delaying me?" he demanded. "And I mean a legitimate reason."

"I really just wanted to know why you kissed me," she replied with a small shrug. "I was worried that maybe you liked me."

"I don't like you," he replied. "I never have."

"Well alrighty then. Is it alright if I still like you? As a friend, I mean?"

Hiei laughed a little, though the sound was strained and false and nothing about his face suggested that he was actually amused.

"You are unbelievable," he said.

"I aim to please!" she said, smiling brilliantly at him.

"If only you did," he muttered.

"And I'm really glad that we had this talk Hiei," she added. "I was worried that you might try to kiss me again after I kissed you. I didn't want anything to be awkward between us, since we do have to work together. After all, it's not like either of us really feel that way about the other, and even if we did, what would we do? You're a demon who lives in demon world and I'm a ferry girl who works for spirit world. How silly is that?"

Botan giggled, wondering why Hiei did not appreciate the irony of what she had just said. Instead he stared at her with a slightly innocent look, one that she was not quite accustomed to seeing on his face.

"You determine to be my downfall," he whispered.

Botan tilted her head to one side in confusion at his words. He held her gaze for a moment before groaning deeply and leaping off the tree branch. Botan screamed out as he collided with her, the shock causing her to not only fall off of her oar, but for the oar itself to disappear. Her voice continued crying out, the sound stuttering a little as she collided with a few tree branches before landing amongst the undergrowth of the forest floor, her head spinning and her body struggling to recover the air that had been taken from it on the force of impact.

Before Botan could regain her senses she heard a sound akin to a wolf moving in for an attack, followed by a pair of strong arms grabbing around her waist. She tried to turn her head to see what had caught her but her chin collided with a mass of spiky black hair, her body going stiff as she felt something warm and wet sliding up the side of her throat. She clawed at the weight pinning her to the ground, her fists closing around handfuls of Hiei's shirt. Her mouth moved wordlessly and noiselessly, her legs squirming against the ground as she found herself caught between the need to get out of the situation she was in and the debilitating prickling feeling in her chest.

Was this feeling what Keiko had once called butterflies, Botan wondered? It felt more likes bubbles to her, millions of tiny bubbles rushing up and bursting inside of her. As she felt Hiei lodging his knees under hers and pushing her legs apart the feeling magnified and a small noise came from her mouth. He grunted and nipped at her neck with his teeth, his hands grabbing into her clothes, the sound of ripping material reaching her ears. Her body lurched against her will, momentarily pressing every part of her hard against him. At the movement he lifted his head, looking down at her, and she almost wished that he had stayed where he was, since the look on his face was far worse than anything he was doing to her.

"No!" she cried out, barely managing to clap a hand over his mouth before his lips reached hers.

His glowing eyes lost none of their intensity as he slowly reached up one hand, closing it around her wrist to pull her hand out of his way.

"Don't, Hiei, please!" she wailed. "It's cruel! You kiss like a monster!"

"And you kiss like an angel, which is hardly fair for a demon like me," he growled back, pulling her hand from his lips as he spoke.

"Hi–"

Botan barely got the first syllable of his name out before he closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to hers. At first it felt as uncomfortable as it had the previous two times he had tried to kiss her, but after the initial shock of contact she felt a slight lessening of pressure, and for some reason she could not fathom, her lips behaved contrary to her thoughts, pushing back up against his. She was sure that she felt his lips smiling slightly as they kissed, but she was far more concerned by what her hand was doing: Hiei was restraining her left hand against the ground, his hand still gripped around her wrist, but her right hand had somehow snaked its way up the narrow space between their bodies and was bunching a fist around his shirt, pulling him closer to her.

Something was very, very wrong.

Botan wondered if Hiei was somehow manipulating her actions with his jagan: but his bandana was firmly in place and with the array of new and unusual sensations racking her body her mind was barely thinking about anything much less guiding her actions with any sort of pre-determined purpose.

Their shared kiss was brief as Hiei dragged his lips from hers, working them along her jaw and down her neck, causing her to do something else that she had not planned or expected to do.

"Oh, Hiei!" she groaned, her voice low and barely sounding like her own.

Hiei's lips lifted from her neck long enough for him to answer her.

"Mhu, Botan," he growled into her shoulder.

Hiei's lips brushed against her skin briefly before both froze on the spot.

"Wh-what did you just say?" Botan asked, her eyes so wide she was afraid they might pop out of her head.

Hiei grumbled out something that sounded like an insult, his hands grabbing at the ground on either side of her shoulders. He straightened his arms, raising the top half of his body from her, frowning down at her, his face suddenly changed. Botan wanted to ask him if he had actually said her name, if only because she was almost sure that she must have misheard him. She had thought that he did not even know what it was, since he had always claimed that he only bothered making the effort to learn the names of people who proved themselves worthy of his attention, and to Botan it seemed that Hiei only knew of four names: Kurama, Yukina, Yusuke and Mukuro.

"Did you…" she tried, still unable to say the words under the intensity of his glare.

His face twitched, and Hiei said only one more word to Botan before he vanished in a streak of black and white.

"Shit."

* * *

Kurama felt as awkward as Kuwabara looked as both tried to relax and look natural. They had already survived the day before sneaking around the outskirts of Yomi's territory – or rather, Yomi's former territory – and today found them in the heart of what was formerly Raizen's territory. Kuwabara had called it "Yusuke's inheritance", but that term seemed inappropriate to Kurama. Even if Yusuke had somehow inherited full control over the area, it apparently still had not made his friends above suspicion: whilst Yusuke had ascended the tower in the heart of the land, Kurama and Kuwabara had been forced to wait part way up, under the watchful eyes of several extremely powerful demons who had once been Raizen's top warriors.

Kuwabara had been unable to sit still while they waited for Yusuke to return, and had taken to pacing about, the amount of sweat he was producing enough to draw attention to him alone, the apprehension on his face only adding to his conspicuousness. But despite Kuwabara looking and acting like a guilty fool, the majority of the guards were watching Kurama, who had not moved from the spot Yusuke had left him at other than to sit down, allowing his legs to dangle over the ledge in front of him. Apparently his fight against Shigure was still fresh in the memories of those present, as on more that one occasion Kurama heard voices muttering comparisons between Youko and the seemingly human boy before them.

Kurama sighed quietly before hearing a thud at his side. It was unexpected, but neither startled nor surprised him when he saw what had landed there.

"So your stupid plant was right. I want to do unthinkable things to that woman. The more I see her, the more I want to ravish her."

Kurama nodded.

"Good afternoon, Hiei," he said smoothly.

"It doesn't mean anything," Hiei continued. "It's just circumstantial."

"I'm glad you could join us," Kurama said.

"If she was a demon, this would have been over long ago. Even if she was just a normal human, I could have resolved this by now. But she's part of the spirit world squad, I can't so much as look at her without risking imprisonment."

"We've had a very busy morning so far."

"I don't even like her. She irritates me. She's pretty, but in a very annoying, silly, girly sort of way. It all started from a stupid idea, and it has escalated to this heightened level of madness."

"Yusuke has gone to the top of the tower, to the private areas of what was Raizen's home."

"I was in prison, after they arrested me for taking that damned shadow sword, and one of the other prisoners said something stupid."

Kurama paused, frowning slightly. He was unsure if Hiei wanted his honest opinion on anything he was saying, but hearing Hiei mention his arrest had captured his interest.

"Hn, he said those ferry girls were like presents, waiting to be opened, dressed in those kimonos. Covered in several layers of unnecessary wrappings and tied together with a big bow, and what lies beneath is a treasure. Foolish words from a foolish weakling, but it amused me to imagine it. Now I can't stop imagining it. And her complete ignorance to it just makes it all the worse. I thought that she would want it too. Living that self-righteous, overly moral lifestyle, she ought to be ripe for a little corruption."

"But she's not."

"I only need one shot. I could forget about it and move on then. Just one night, and I would see sense again. One night and she would just be another stupidly naïve ferry girl, another one of Koenma's little wastrels."

"You're playing a very dangerous game, Hiei."

"The danger is why I enjoy it so much."

"I don't believe that you truly understand what the danger is."

"I understand it well enough. I'd be back in spirit world prison and they would probably find an excuse to execute me."

"You think that is the only danger you face?"

Hiei turned to look at Kurama for the first time since his arrival. Kurama kept his head forwards, smiling and closing his eyes.

"The problem with denying yourself something is that when you do finally acquire it, you lose all self-control and go to extremes," he said.

"I know that!" Hiei snapped.

"No you don't," Kurama said, opening his eyes again. "I am not talking about the physical aspect of what you are chasing after, that's not something you've ever denied yourself."

"What would you know about that?" Hiei muttered.

"I'm talking about the emotional aspect," Kurama continued, ignoring Hiei's question. "Could you trust yourself not to fall in love?"

Hiei stood up abruptly and glared down at Kurama.

"How dare you?" he snarled. "Don't ever mention that ridiculous human word around me again, understand?"

"You came to me for my opinion," Kurama calmly replied, without looking up at Hiei. "And now you have it."

"Hn, well clearly I've wasted my time."

Kurama got to his feet, ignoring the look he got from Hiei and instead turning his attention to the figure that had been creeping towards them during their last exchange.

"Hey," Kuwabara greeted him. "What's up?"

"Why are you here?" Hiei spat at him.

"At least I got here at the start, you little punk!" Kuwabara snapped back.

Hiei grunted out a noise of disgust and shot off out of sight.

"How much of our conversation did you hear?" Kurama asked Kuwabara once he was confident that Hiei was out of earshot.

"Not much," Kuwabara said with a shrug. "I guess you were talking about Hiei and Botan though, right?"

Kurama kept the emotion from his face with the ease of a practised dissembler.

"Wasn't there a song about that?" Kuwabara continued. "Something like "the soultender and the thief were lovers"?"

Kurama relaxed a little. Thankfully the situation was not as bad as he had feared, since Kuwabara was still somewhat of an idiot.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei is in a terrible mood, but despite this the gang find a clue for the case they are working on, one that leaves Hiei with a difficult decision to make. **Chapter 11: The Discovery**.

 **A/N:** Kuwabara is thinking of "The Bartender and the Thief" (were lovers) by Stereophonics, for anyone wondering.


	11. The Discovery

**Recap:** Botan freed Hiei from the vine of the guilty and then took Keiko's advice on how to make Hiei show his feelings, which led to Hiei kissing her (again!). Afterwards, Hiei confessed to Kurama that he is really only obsessed with Botan because of what she is – and Kuwabara overhead everything.

* * *

 **Chapter 11: The Discovery**

It was raining. It was winter and it was raining. Each droplet of water was fat and cold and drenched whatever it hit. The ground was changing shape as grasses and smaller plants became burdened by the weight of countless droplets of water, some keeling over altogether. It was as though the rain was melting everything into one; but Botan did not care.

The ferry girl lay silent against the forest floor, her eyelids drooped to protect her eyes from the falling rain, her body still splayed against the undergrowth exactly where Hiei had left her. She felt as though the rain was washing her into the ground, but she did not have the physical energy or even the desire to get up and find shelter. The trees around her offered little protection as they were all bare for the winter, save a few evergreens, which were kindly gathering the water and the dumping it in loads onto her, as though someone was standing over her, spraying her with a showerhead and infrequently throwing a glass of water at her.

"Well it rains when it rains," she muttered, before closing her eyes completely.

It was cold but her skin was still burning in every place Hiei had touched her. His passion – if it could even be described as that, since she was still unsure just what his intentions were – was just like his demonic powers: a blazing inferno that threatened to set her aflame and burn her to ashes. She was not ignorant, but she still did not consider his actions to be in any way romantic. He still hated her as much as he always had, it was just that now it had apparently become acceptable for them to kiss each other.

It made no sense, and Botan wondered how far their heated exchange would have gone if Hiei had not accidentally said her name.

Before that moment she had been angry that he had been so rough and unromantic with his actions, but as she lay on the ground in the pouring rain, she was no longer sure that those feelings even mattered to her any more. As a courier of souls, she had never expected to find love, so what did it matter if she never did? She rarely spent long with the souls she collected, not unless they were issued with an ordeal to get their lives back, and that was a rare thing indeed. In her long life as a ferry girl she could count on her fingers – using her hand three times – the number of people she had shared more than ten minutes of her time with, and some of that number included people she would never see again for one reason or another: Genkai, Shinobu Sensui, and Kuroko Sanada (or Kuroko Sato, as she was now known). Some of the names on her list could not really be considered friends at all, but those that she was close to she loved dearly: but in a strictly platonic sense.

Her entire life had been about platonic love, and although she did often entertain ideas of romance, she realised now that she had never honestly believed or expected to find it. These little trysts she had shared with Hiei were the closest Botan had ever come to experiencing a romantic kind of love, and clearly romance had not been on Hiei's mind during any of them. She doubted he was capable of feeling or acting romantic, but she did not feel that way about him, so why did she care?

Still, she thought, something was different. Everything around her was carrying on as normal: the spirit detectives were investigating another case, Koenma was frantic and George was bearing the brunt of his frustration as always, Ayame was typically stoic and lifeless and Yukina and Keiko were supporting them all from behind the scenes as they always had done. And yet despite everything being normal for everyone else, everything was as far from normal as possible for Botan.

She wondered what Hiei was thinking, what he was feeling about their predicament.

She wondered if Hiei did think or feel anything at all about their predicament. Or about her. Ever.

Something in Botan's heart felt different, like a shadow had passed over it. It was not a sadness, just a darkness, mostly borne from confusion. She found herself smiling then: a shadow, just like Hiei. That was what his name meant, after all, "flying shadow". And apparently this shadow was currently flying across her heart.

Botan's smile widened further as she thought of how appropriate it was that Hiei's name meant flying shadow, since that was literally what he was. He was a little piece of darkness that flitted about faster than the average human eye could follow. His clothes were black as shadows, his hair was as black as the night sky and even his character was dark and shrouded from scrutiny. He often claimed to prefer his home of demon world because of the darkness there, whereas she loved the living world for its sunshine and brightness.

A bleeping noise cut into her thoughts, and with a small degree of surprise, Botan opened her eyes and brought one hand around to fumble in her pocket for her communicator. Her clothing was so drenched she expected it to have been destroyed like the one she had ruined in the lake, but surprisingly it was still chirping for attention. Before she opened it Botan suspected that she already knew who was calling her, and she was not entirely sure that she wanted him to see her looking the way she currently did; so she did the only thing that she could think of under the circumstances and opened the communicator against the ground.

"Botan?" a voice called out to her. "Botan, do you read me?"

"Yes Sir," she said groggily. "Loud and clear."

"Botan, where are you? And what's happening? Why can't I see you?"

Botan reached up her free hand to wipe some of the excess rainwater from her eyes before continuing.

"Sorry Lord Koenma, the communicator is malfunctioning," she lied.

She had never lied to her boss before, but that last statement had rolled off of her tongue with almost sickening ease.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't ruined your own communicator you wouldn't be using that second rate spare!" he yelled back at her.

"Yes, I'm sorry Sir," she replied, not even bothering to make her apology sound convincing.

"I need you to get back here Botan, there are a few things I need to talk to you about. Confidential stuff Botan, so get here quickly and come alone!"

"Understood Sir. Running all the way."

Botan snapped the communicator shut and stuffed it back into her pocket. She then closed her eyes and relaxed back into the river of mud, moss and fungi around her, once more sinking into the ground and sinking into her thoughts.

* * *

"I got a really bad feeling in my stomach," Kuwabara said, touching a hand to his gut to illustrate his point.

"It's called indigestion," Yusuke told him. "That's what happens when you forget to chew before you swallow."

"Quit it Urameshi, this is serious," Kuwabara replied. "I got a really bad premonition about going in there."

"In there?" Yusuke echoed, pointing at the low level building ahead of them.

"Yeah," Kuwabara confirmed. "It's like there's something deeply dark and evil in there. I don't like it at all. I think we need to be careful."

Yusuke started to reprimand Kuwabara again, but Kurama held up a hand to silence him.

"I think we should consider what Kuwabara is saying, Yusuke," he said.

"I don't," Hiei said sharply.

"You're just disagreeing with me because you hate me!" Kuwabara said to him.

"Think what you will," Hiei replied.

"Okay, let's not start fighting between ourselves," Yusuke said. "Again!"

"It's not my fault the little guy's in a bad mood today!" Kuwabara defended himself. "And I mean he's in a really bad mood, you know, like worse than he usually is."

Yusuke turned to look at Hiei, quietly swallowing as Hiei's red eyes locked onto his. There was something slightly different about Hiei's mood that day, Yusuke thought to himself. It was like he was a coiled spring of vicious intent, ready to shoot into action at any moment, with inevitably disastrous consequences. He was probably still annoyed about the plant Kurama had set to trap him, and the thought that his sister was pregnant, Yusuke concluded. Hiei had not even seen or spoken to Yukina since she had announced her condition, which Yusuke thought was really quite selfish.

"We shall proceed with caution for now," Kurama suggested.

"You do this your way, I will do it mine," Hiei said, whipping out his sword.

"Hi–" Yusuke began, pausing as Hiei dashed off. "–ei. Oh well. I suppose we better go after him."

Kurama nodded and Kuwabara groaned, and then all three hurried towards the seemingly insignificant building by the outskirts of Mukuro's territory, which Hiei had just stormed without a second thought. Despite having broken down the door and created a small pile of still smouldering rubble in his wake, there was no sight or sound of Hiei, and the lack of movement only made the others even more cautious than before.

"Do you think somebody ate him?" Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke, the glimmer of hope obvious in his tone despite his attempts to sound concerned.

"No, look," Kurama said, his acute sense of hearing having also easily picked up Kuwabara's question.

They all watched as Hiei re-emerged from the building, picking his way gracefully over the mess he had created, his sword in one hand and an old, yellow and tattered piece of parchment in the other.

"What is it, Hiei?" Yusuke called over to him.

"A picture," Hiei plainly replied.

"I don't like this, you guys," Kuwabara muttered.

"It looks like a candle," Hiei said.

Kurama moved over to join him, peering over his shoulder curiously at the faded image sketched onto the parchment.

"Such detail," he muttered. "But clearly this is an ancient document."

"Lemme see," Yusuke said, hurrying over to look over Hiei's other shoulder. "Hey, that's not a candle! It's a firecracker!"

Hiei lifted his eyes to Yusuke, giving him a flat look.

"I guess you don't get those here in demon world," Yusuke said. "It's a type of firework."

Hiei's face remained unchanged.

"It's like a candle, Hiei," Kurama said gently. "But it's explosive. The wick at the top is actually a fuse, and when it burns out, the whole object explodes."

"So if you don't get firecrackers here in demon world, why is there an ancient picture of one here?" Yusuke asked. "That picture looks older than Kuwabara's mother, I don't even think firecrackers had been invented when that was drawn."

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled.

"I didn't know Kuwabara had a mother," Kurama whispered to Yusuke.

Yusuke shrugged.

"He always falls for those sort of jokes, so I guess he must do," he replied.

"It seems a little distasteful to make such jibes if she has passed on," Kurama added.

Yusuke shrugged again.

"Hey, I really don't think you guys should be touching that thing anyway," Kuwabara called over.

"What, this?" Yusuke asked, poking a finger at the parchment in Hiei's hand. "It's just a page out of somebody's sketchbook from two thousand years ago!"

"I think it might be something more than that," Kurama said. "Look at the writing near the bottom there."

"I can't make it out," Yusuke said, leaning further forwards and squinting. "Move your thumb, Hiei."

Hiei growled, tossing the parchment up into the air and stomped away from them. Yusuke hurriedly grabbed it, crushing a fist around it and turning pale in fear that he had just destroyed it.

"Interesting," Kurama muttered as Yusuke opened his hand out and the parchment took shape once more, completely unharmed. "Although time has had an effect on this item, brute force cannot harm it."

"Hey, I wasn't trying to destroy it!" Yusuke moaned.

"No matter, the writing is quite illegible," Kurama said, taking the parchment from Yusuke. "But it would appear that it is meant to be a list of instructions."

"Instructions?" Yusuke snorted. "What idiot doesn't know how to use a firecracker?"

Hiei glared at Yusuke and he grinned nervously in response.

"Kuwabara, I think you should take a look at this," Kurama insisted, approaching the apprehensive redhead. "I would appreciate your input."

Kuwabara peered cautiously at the image, his face slowly relaxing as he took it in.

"I dunno," he concluded. "I just get this feeling that it doesn't belong here. Like it's a really bad thing if whatever that is in the picture is in this place."

Kurama nodded.

"Lot of help you are…" Yusuke muttered.

"Actually this has been helpful," Kurama corrected him. "Although the writing on this parchment is almost faded into obscurity, I can make out a reference to King Enma."

Yusuke's face dropped and even Hiei turned towards him in interest.

"I think we might be one step closer to what we've been looking for," Kurama continued. "And unfortunately that puts us in a rather difficult position in terms of our loyalties."

Kurama shot Hiei a pointed look and Yusuke paled.

"You mean Mukuro's the one behind all the disappearances?" Yusuke blurted out.

"I am not implying that at all," Kurama quickly corrected him. "But it would appear that whoever is behind the disappearing humans and the alleged rebellion can be found in this region."

"Oh…" Yusuke said, turning to Hiei expectantly.

Hiei glanced back and forth between Kurama and Yusuke, growing increasingly agitated as he took in their concerned expressions.

"I understand this must be difficult for you Hiei, but before we become more embroiled in this investigation, you have to make a choice," Kurama told him.

"It's not even question," Hiei haughtily replied. "It's not even a matter of choice, as far as I am concerned."

"That doesn't really tell us whose side you're on…" Yusuke muttered.

"Hey you guys?" Kuwabara asked, scratching at his head. "Who's Mukuro?"

Yusuke and Hiei groaned but Kurama smiled patiently.

"She's Hiei partner, Kuwabara," he explained.

"Oh!" Kuwabara said in realisation.

He looked around the three pensive faces and his face soon became as darkened as theirs were.

"Oh…" he said in a low voice, the corners of his mouth drooping.

* * *

Botan sniffed slightly, smiling as she caught an orange-haired ferry girl glaring at her. The halls of Koenma's temple were oddly quiet: the usual bustle of bodies was present, but as she moved through it ferry girls and ogres alike were drawing to a halt and falling silent. Loose pieces of paper frittered to the ground. An ogre cleared his throat awkwardly. A ferry girl dropped her oar with a clatter.

"Botan?" George said, falling into step with her.

"Hello George!" she greeted him, flashing him a brilliant smile.

He forced a short, quivering smile back before continuing.

"Is everything alright?" he asked cautiously.

"Everything's super George, thanks for asking," she replied.

He swallowed slowly and nodded a little.

"Be careful you don't slip," he said.

Botan glanced at him curiously.

"You're a little wet," he added, waving a hand out behind her to indicate the trail of water she had left in her wake.

"It's raining in the living world," she calmly replied without looking back.

"Maybe you should dry off before you go into Lord Koen–"

George stopped short as Botan pushed open the doors to Koenma's office and continued through them. He hesitated outside the doorway, unsure whether he wanted to see Koenma's reaction to Botan's condition or not.

"Lord Koenma Sir, you called me," she said, approaching his desk.

"Botan," Koenma began, lifting his head from his latest piles of papers in need of stamping. "Botan! What happened to you?"

She sniffed and pushed back a dripping section of cyan hair that had fallen over one side of her face.

"It was raining, Sir," she replied.

"Botan, you look like you've been swimming in the puddles fully-clothed!" Koenma pointed out.

She shrugged.

"This is the third time you've come into my office looking a mess!" he continued. "First you came in wet and sticky in that black witch's cloak, the second time, when you brought back the mystic whistle, you came in all greasy and looking like you hadn't slept, and now this!"

"Sorry Sir," she said.

Koenma frowned at her, less than convinced by her act. Something was amiss but he did not have the time to try to pry it out of her.

"Well next time take an umbrella," he said sternly. "Ogre! Fetch Botan an umbrella!"

George gladly scooted away from the doorway to respond to the order.

"Botan, Ayame has been looking through some records for me, and I've discovered something a little unusual," Koenma continued, trying to ignore the fact that Botan was dripping on his desk. "It's nothing to worry about, but what with this ongoing trouble in demon world, I'd like it sorted as soon as possible. I have a mission for you. I need you to find me a new spirit detective."

Botan's eyebrows rose slightly but she said nothing.

"It's not permanent, I don't expect us to need another full-time detective," Koenma added. "And the last three didn't exactly go as planned, so let's not make this too complicated. I just need a human with heightened spiritual awareness to do a little search and retrieve mission for me."

"Well Sir, we could ask Kuwabara or even Shizuru," Botan suggested.

Koenma tensed as she splashed more water onto his desk as she talked.

"Here we are, Sir!" George said, racing into the office with an umbrella.

"Perfect timing, ogre," Koenma said, taking the umbrella from him.

He opened out the umbrella and perched it on his desk, smiling to himself as the next drip from Botan landed on the soft white canvass canopy.

"No," he said, lifting his eyes to Botan.

"Sir?" she responded.

"This isn't a task for Kuwabara or his sister," he explained. "We need fresh blood. Someone… Someone with no prior knowledge of the cases we've worked on in the past."

Botan nodded.

"I understand Sir," she said. "Can I ask exactly what has prompted this?"

"I can't tell you," Koenma said, cutting her off before she pushed any further. "Now go clean yourself up and get to it. And don't worry about Yusuke and the team, I'm sending out someone else to help them."

"Not Ayame?"

Koenma hesitated, frowning slightly.

"What's wrong with sending Ayame?" he asked.

"Well…"

"Just get on with it Botan. And on your way out, tell that ogre to hurry up with my lunch!"

"Yes Sir."

Botan slowly left his office again, squelching as she went. The first time Koenma had told her he was taking her off of the ongoing mission she had been distraught: but this time she barely cared at all. The thought of flying around on her oar alone in the living world sounded like a very welcome opportunity to relax to her, and she intended to make the most of it.

Though she did distinctly feel that something was wrong.

* * *

Hiei stopped short, glaring at the black object floating about the kitchen. Yusuke had disappeared somewhere with his woman, Kuwabara had kept going to the dining area but Kurama had stopped by Hiei's side, looking almost as surprised as Hiei felt.

"You're all back," a monotonous voice greeted them.

Hiei glanced at Kurama, who gave a small shrug to show that he was just as confused.

"Lord Koenma asked me to take over as your guide," the ferry girl said.

"I see," Kurama said, with a small nod.

"Oh, hi Ayame!" Kuwabara called through to her.

Hiei growled quietly, but before he could voice his opinion on the matter Yusuke joined them, stumbling to a halt as he spotted Ayame.

"Ayame?" he yelped. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your assistant now," Ayame plainly replied.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hiei demanded.

"I don't know!" Yusuke replied. "Don't ask me! Ask that little brat Koenma!"

Hiei eyed Ayame over before turning back to Yusuke.

"I don't like it," he said. "I want the other one back."

Yusuke's eyebrows flew up and a hint of a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"This is no laughing matter!" Hiei warned him. "Take it back and swap it for the other one!"

"I dunno Hiei," Yusuke said, his face surrendering slightly to his amusement. "I think I prefer Ayame. She's not a nag like Botan. And I bet she would never use that stupid whistle on you."

Hiei scowled at him before spinning on his heel and marching through the kitchen to the dining area, where Kuwabara was sitting at the table apparently waiting to be served a meal.

"You!" Hiei barked, thumping his bandaged fist onto the table.

Kuwabara cried out in alarm, shirking away from Hiei.

"Give me that device that you use to call the ferry girl," Hiei demanded, holding out his hand towards Kuwabara.

"My communicator?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hand it over," Hiei ground out.

"Okay, keep your shirt on, hamster legs," Kuwabara grumbled, producing the round device from his pocket.

Hiei snatched it from him and raced back out of the temple, not stopping until he had descended the temple steps and left the boundaries of the temple grounds completely. He then prised open the communicator, holding it the way he had seen the others do. He stared down at the series of buttons and the blank screen for several seconds before coming to reluctant realisation that he had no idea how to work the damn thing.

* * *

Once dinner was over and everyone had settled down for the evening, Botan went upstairs to check on Yukina, who had gone to bed after eating as she was feeling tired. She was concerned about Yukina's welfare, but Botan was also going upstairs to get away from Yusuke and Kuwabara, who had started laughing when she had appeared for dinner and not stopped throughout the entire meal: they had even volunteered to help her clear away the dishes, and apparently only so that they could laugh at her some more.

She really wished that they would tell her what the big joke was.

Upstairs Botan found Yukina in the room they had shared previously. She was sitting across the width of her bed looking up out of the slanted window at the darkening sky outside, smiling softly to herself.

"Yukina?" Botan whispered, creeping into the room. "Are you alright?"

"Hello Botan," Yukina greeted her. "I was just watching the sky. I like to watch the stars coming out at night. Back in the ice village, we were surrounded by clouds and I never saw the sky. It's one of my favourite things about this world."

Botan carefully sat down next to her, resting her head back against the wall.

"Yes, I think the skies here are the most beautiful of all three worlds," she agreed.

"I've been thinking about the ice village a lot lately," Yukina continued, looking a little saddened then.

"Do you want to go back there?" Botan asked her.

"I'm not sure if I should, for the birth," Yukina replied. "I don't know what it will be like, but all the ice maidens wear their mother's tear around their necks, so I think it might be painful. I thought I might be better to be around the women who understand that. But I don't want to go back there. Since I've come here I've learnt what it means to have real friends, people who aren't ashamed of their feelings, and I would miss that. And I'm a little bit afraid that if I went back, the elders would take my child away from me. They threw my brother off a cliff the day he was born, I don't know that they would show me any kindness for choosing to leave them to find him."

Botan nodded her understanding.

"Well maybe we could bring one of the ice maidens here to stay with you until you have your child," she suggested. "Did you have a special friend there? Or your mother perhaps?"

"My mother died a long time ago," Yukina sadly replied.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Yukina!" Botan hurriedly apologised.

"It's alright Botan," Yukina assured her. "I was mostly raised by my mother's best friend Rui."

"Rui? Maybe we could find Rui and ask her to come here?"

"I don't think she would leave the village. The others might not let her go back if she did. It's probably just silly, I have so many people who are so kind to me here. But this has really made me think more about my family."

Botan's lip curled slightly as an image of Hiei at his most vile and bloody passed through her mind.

"I have an idea!" Botan said suddenly. "What if one of us spoke to Rui for you? Not to ask her to come here, just to ask her for some advice perhaps."

Yukina looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling at Botan.

"Maybe I could write a letter to Rui," she said. "And Rui can write back to me. It would make me so happy to tell her my good news and to hear from her again."

"What a smashing idea!" Botan said.

"I can ask Mister Hiei to deliver it for me."

"Yes, of course you can, that would be – awful! What?"

Botan glared at Yukina in disbelief, but Yukina merely smiled back at her with unwavering gentility.

"You shouldn't be so harsh on Mister Hiei, Botan," she said. "He's a very strong fighter, but he has a very kind heart."

Botan bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from asking Yukina what planet she had just beamed down from: Hiei had a very kind heart? Were they speaking about the same temperamental little fire demon?

Then again, Hiei was different around Yukina. He was gentler around her. His face opened up around Yukina, he looked less aggressive and almost peaceful when he was looking at or talking to her. Botan supposed that Hiei was so different around Yukina because he loved her, and he hated or else just tolerated everyone else.

As she pictured the almost gentle looks Hiei gave Yukina, Botan felt the strange prickling feeling in her chest from before.

"Botan?" Yukina asked, a hint of concern in her voice. "Are you alright?"

Botan turned to her, at first a still a little taken aback at that odd feeling returning to her at such a time; but she quickly covered it with a smile.

"I'm great!" she said. "Why don't you get some sleep, I have to… Report back to Lord Koenma."

"Alright," Yukina agreed. "I'll write my letter tomorrow."

"Okay dokay," Botan said, rising to her feet. "Sleep well!"

"Goodnight Botan."

Botan waved and left the room, softly closing the door behind her. As soon as she had secured the door in place she turned and ran along the hallway and down the stairs, heading for the nearest exit, barely managing to grab the white umbrella Koenma had given her before she left the temple entirely. As soon as she found her way outside she mounted her oar and took off into the evening sky, forcing herself to fly high and to fly fast.

Once she had reached the point where the air was starting to sting her skin, both from the cold and the speed of it whipping past her, Botan allowed herself a sigh. She was supposed to be looking for a new spirit detective, and that alone ought to be enough of a distraction for her brain, but somehow, even though she was not consciously concentrating on the subject, the recesses of her mind kept reliving the moment Hiei had pushed her off her oar and what he had done to her on the forest floor. She allowed the memory to rise up and consume her thoughts for a few seconds, but the rushing, bubbling feeling flooded her chest and she found herself doing something that she had not done since her days as a trainee ferry girl: her oar went into a tail spin that almost sent her crashing into a tall tree.

Botan quickly shook off the thought and firmly grasped her oar, one hand either side of her, keeping her back straight and her chin level: basic training. She focussed her attention on direction and altitude, factoring in wind speed and direction: intermediate training. As she neared a mountain she circum-navigated it, leaning slightly to one side to follow the landscape around, passing over the space in the shortest possible distance: advanced training.

Ferry girl training had taught Botan everything she knew.

Ferry girl training had taught Botan all she knew.

Botan could vaguely remember a more experienced ferry girl once laughing at her when she began her job, telling her that her training would never be enough, because there was one vital aspect of the job that spirit world never bothered to prepare its ferry girls for. Botan concentrated harder, trying to remember exactly what it was that the girl had said to her. It had been something about how ferrying souls was always going to be difficult, but finding a kindred soul made the job so much harder because it was difficult not to become attached to that soul. She had not described it as love – Ayame had asked if she was referring to love and she had laughed at that too, saying that this was something much more complex.

"Sympathy for the devil," Botan said aloud as the words came to her.

Botan paused, completely failing to notice that she was slowly sinking through the air.

"I have sympathy for the devil syndrome!" she muttered to herself. "It all makes sense now!"

Her feelings for Hiei – her feelings that seemed to be growing from nowhere – they were exactly what that cocky ferry girl had been talking about.

"Bingo!" Botan said cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "Now I just have to find her and ask her what the cure is!"

Botan screamed out in shock as she slid from her oar, the realisation finally hitting her that she had been forgetting about her training so much that she had forgotten the useful things it had taught her: like how to stay airborne. She grasped at the blade of the oar, pulling herself back up the length of it and concentrating her energy once more on flying.

Botan flew on for a little longer before coming to the conclusion that it was late (the sun had set long go) and she needed to decide where she was going to go. She could either go back to Genkai's temple for the night or she could go to spirit world and find that ferry girl.

Botan paused, hovering by a large sakura tree over-hanging a shallow river. She eyed the tree over carefully, considering that perhaps she had a third option, and perhaps it was the most appealing of all.

* * *

Hiei stopped, mid-step, and lifted his eyes. It was a peaceful morning – or rather, it had been a peaceful morning until that point – the sun still low on the horizon, the shadows stretching long across the sweeping countryside around him. He had been enjoying the relative silence, the only sounds being the water running along at his side and the occasional bird passing overhead.

And now there was a grunting and moaning sound permeating the air in the most unpleasant manner, and the source of the disturbance was even more offending to Hiei's eyes than it was to his ears.

There was a body slouched and sprawled over the lowest branch of the large sakura tree ahead of him. Legs hung down either side of the branch, one arm dangled down, a strange white object hanging from the fingers, and the body was moulded to the branch itself, the head barely propped up against the trunk of the tree. The head turned slightly towards Hiei and another nasal rattling filled the air: apparently it was asleep.

Hiei decided that whatever its reason for being there was, it was not his concern, and so he carried on, keeping his head tilted down to block out the pathetic image hanging above him as he passed under the branch it was resting on. He tensed as more grunting sounded above him and stopped abruptly as the fingers hanging down lost their grip on the strange object they had been supporting, causing it to drop to the ground in front of him. Hiei edged towards the strange item, deciding that it must be some sort of weapon: it had a sort of blunt spear at one end and a grooved handle at the other, with a strange gathering of white material around the middle.

Hiei glanced up at the body slouched above him and then back at the object it had dropped. He told himself that he did not care for any sort of weapon made by the hand of a human or originating from spirit world, but it was probably worth finding out what this one did: just to prepare himself in case he ever encountered an enemy wielding such a bizarre contraption. So he crouched down and grabbed the handle, lifting the object a little too abruptly: it was surprisingly lightweight and flimsy. He stepped out from under the shade of the tree, giving the weapon two test swings before lunging forwards with it as though it were a sword. It lacked the balance of a sword and the folds of material around it flapped about noisily with every movement, making it drag in the air and slowing its movements.

Hiei made a small noise of curiosity, bringing the weapon closer to his face, holding it upright in the air. He slowly studied its length, tugging at one of the folds of material experimentally. Apparently the material was held onto the body of the weapon by the means of several spindly metallic arms. He followed one to its conclusion, lifting it upwards and peering under the material at what lay beneath. The entire innards of the weapon were visible to him, and they looked infinitely complex. As he pulled the arm up higher, Hiei noticed that all the arms were attached to a cylindrical device on the shaft of the weapon, and as he pulled at an arm, the device moved upwards.

Hiei glanced over his shoulder to confirm that the unsightly disgrace behind him was still sound asleep before pushing the device up, his eyes narrowing and his shoulders tensing as the metallic arms began to open out, unfolding the material between them. The arms began to take an unusual shape as he slid the device upwards, the material opening out into a circle, making the weapon look more like a shield. He heard a click by his fingers and withdrew them on instinct, surprised to find that the weapon held its shape: apparently it was a shield.

Hiei gripped the shaped handle in one hand and tilted the shaft upwards to get a better view of the material shield he had created. A poke at the material told him that it was pulled taut, but it still felt quite frail. The shape of the shield did raise a few questions though: it was distinctly curved, and whilst it was not unusual for a shield to be curved, this one formed a distinct dome, the blunt spear poking out of the peak. Lowering it again and holding it out in front of himself, pointing the spear forwards, Hiei concluded that this was a spirit world device, a clever shielding device with curved edges, designed specifically for protection against energy blasts. The spear obviously caught the energy of an attack and distributed it down through the many metallic arms, dissipating the force of the attack, and the material stretched between those arms must be made of some special protective element. A very clever device indeed: it had a spear that could be used as a weapon, and it was also a powerful shield.

Hiei slowly pulled the device closer to himself again, glancing at the overall shape of it and the river at his side. He slowly moved over to the water's edge and turned the device upside-down, dipping it into the water, spear first. He released it, watching with curious interest as it bobbed around a little before finding its balance and gently floating away downstream. An extremely clever device: it was a spear, a shield and a boat!

Hiei trotted along stream to collect the device, shaking the water from it and fiddling around with it a little before managing to close it flat again. He was curious to know the full extent of its power, so he decided to keep it. He lodged it into the belt of his coat and then turned to check on the person he had taken it from.

He crept back a little, bringing himself closer, feeling safe enough to do so because that awful snoring had temporarily stopped. She looked incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, and Hiei wondered what had possessed her to choose such a place to sleep. He himself had spent the night in a tree, but that was because he hated sleeping amongst the others on his team as though they were all a pack of the same animal. She ought to have been sleeping in Genkai's temple with the others, he thought, that was where she had been staying before. If not there, then she ought to be back in spirit world: in fact, Hiei thought, his face darkening angrily, why was she not back in spirit world? She had already been replaced, another mindless ferry girl had taken up residence back at the temple, and the one he was looking at now was meant to have gone back to her own realm.

Not that Hiei cared, he was just angry that she had lied to them all. She was probably on some secret mission for that brat Koenma. Yes, that was it, he decided. She was on a secret mission, and that was why she had that special three-way weapon-shield-boat with her. How treacherous.

Hiei turned his back on her to set off again, aiming himself for the portal to demon world. He readied himself to take off with a burst of speed but somehow lost his focus, stumbling forward a few steps and almost falling flat on his face. He quickly regained his footing and turned around sharply, glaring back at the idiot ferry girl slouched in the tree. She was moaning and twitching about on the branch, some of her jerkier movements threatening to offset her balance altogether and throw her to the ground.

Maybe he would stay long enough to watch that happen. It might be amusing.

"Yes…"

The word was mumbled but forceful, and as it left her lips they curled slightly into a weak smile.

"Yes, now… Do it…"

Hiei crept a little closer. Her eyes were still closed, and by the small movements of her eyelids, he could see that she was dreaming. He had not thought that she used her brain when she was awake, so it was a little surprising to learn that it was active when she slept. He smirked to himself as he imagined what sort of dreams a simple-minded fool like her could possibly have.

"Yes, Hiei!"

Hiei's face dropped.

She moaned and wriggled around, her back arching a little and her hands gripping into fists.

Hiei touched a hand to his bandana, torn between sprinting off to leave her like he knew he ought to be doing and removing his bandana to have a damn good look into her mind to find out why she was dreaming about him.

To find out what she was dreaming about him.

Hiei swallowed, surprised to find that his throat disobeyed him, as though something hard and dry had become lodged there.

With a muttered curse he tore off his bandana and turned fully towards the ferry girl, closing his eyes and opening his jagan.

Hiei was not really sure what he had expected to find – his initial thoughts had been either kittens and cupcakes or else some sort of romantic disillusion involving the woman forcing him to do something ridiculously sappy and wholly pointless – but what he did actually see was shocking to say the least. First of all, he was in demon world. Secondly, he was at a tournament. The ferry girl was sitting in the stands with Yukina, Yusuke's woman and that oaf's sister. The other three women were simply watching the action, but the ferry girl was on her feet, one hand cupped around her mouth, yelling out cheers of appreciation, the other waving a fist above her head. And the action she was watching was him – Hiei – fighting Enki. In her dream, Hiei looked like he had been battered about pretty badly: he was covered in lacerations and contusions, his shirt was absent and he had a slight look of desperation in his eyes. The dream was not especially detailed outside of the blur of other audience members, but Hiei could sense that she thought that this was the final of the next demon world tournament, and apparently she was rooting for him to defeat Enki and take over demon world as supreme ruler.

She was not dreaming of Yusuke beating Enki, she was not dreaming of Kurama beating Enki, she was dreaming of Hiei beating Enki.

Hiei closed his jagan and opened his own eyes again, deciding that he had seen enough. He replaced his bandana, scowling angrily at the ferry girl as she moaned and writhed about a bit more. It was quite a sight. He was sure that, on some subconscious level, she was doing this to him on purpose. Lying there all slovenly, dreaming about him with that scrunched up look on her face, making those repulsive noises and dressed in those clothes that covered every damned inch of her skin. She was such a tease.

"Bitch," he snarled.

"Huh?" she moaned, her eyes flickering open.

Before her eyelids had opened fully, Hiei had already vanished.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei learns what an umbrella is, Botan contemplates her feelings for Hiei (more than she already has!) and she learns the real reason behind why Koenma has gathered the old gang together again. Meanwhile in demon world, Hiei's loyalties are put to the test… **Chapter 12: The Complications.**


	12. The Complications

**A/N:** For those who don't already know, in Japan, Valentine's Day is celebrated by girls giving gifts to boys, and the boys give gifts on White Day (March 14th).

 **Recap:** The gang found a clue in demon world, Koenma ordered Botan to find a new spirit detective and Hiei caught Botan dreaming about him

* * *

 **Chapter 12: The Complications**

"Are you guys sure that this is the right way?" Kuwabara asked.

"Not entirely," Kurama confessed.

"Where the hell is Hiei?" Yusuke demanded. "He's supposed to be here! He said he was on our side and now he's left us here, we're completely lost, and without him here with us we're as good as trespassing!"

"Maybe he's playing both sides," Kuwabara suggested. "Maybe he only told us he was on our side. Maybe he's reporting everything back to Mukuro, and she's sending out some of her guards to kill us."

"Hiei isn't the sort to back out of an agreement," Kurama insisted.

"I would normally agree, but we're going round in circles here, and I'm starting to have my doubts," Yusuke muttered.

"Hey you guys?" Kuwabara said. "What's Mukuro like?"

"Really powerful," Yusuke answered him. "She could rip you apart in half a second. She kicked Hiei's ass at the last demon world tournament."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"What does she look like?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Well she's Hiei's girlfriend, right? I'm curious. Is she really short and aggressive too?"

"Nah, she's more cool and collected than Hiei. She's taller than him, but I guess that's not exactly hard. And the really funny thing is, she only has one eye, so between them, they still have a total of four eyes!"

Kuwabara and Yusuke began laughing and Kurama rolled his eyes.

"Mukuro has two eyes," he pointed out.

"Are you sure?" Yusuke asked.

"Aw, really?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yes, really," Kurama insisted.

"One of them is kinda messed up though," Yusuke whispered to Kuwabara.

"So they both have a messed up eye?" Kuwabara whispered back.

"Yeah!"

"And she's bigger and stronger than him too? So who do you reckon goes on t–"

"Shut-up, here he comes!"

The trio all turned to watch as Hiei raced towards them, coming to a halt in front of them in a cloud of dust. As the dust settled Kuwabara's face twisted, his eyes coming to rest on Hiei's hip.

"Why do you have an umbrella in your belt?" he asked, pointing at the object in question.

"Stay away from that!" Hiei snapped.

Yusuke and Kurama exchanged confused looks before both shrugging.

"Hiei, we're a little bit lost," Kurama explained, turning back to Hiei. "Are we perhaps on the wrong side of this river?"

Kurama pointed over his shoulder at the wide, deep river of water thundering past them.

"Yes," Hiei replied. "We need to cross it."

"There aren't any bridges," Yusuke said. "We've walked both directions and can't find one anywhere. We didn't want to make a bridge in case it got us unwanted attention, and we weren't even sure we needed to cross in the first place."

"You do need to cross," Hiei confirmed.

"Maybe we should build a raft," Kuwabara suggested.

"You idiot!" Yusuke scoffed. "Have you seen the speed of the current? You'd be washed away in seconds!"

"We can use my boat."

The others all turned to Hiei.

"I'll use it first," he said, approaching the riverbank. "When I get to the other side, I'll throw it back over. I don't think it can hold more than one person, we'll just have to take turns."

The others exchanged confused looks.

"Um… You'll do what?" Yusuke asked.

"It's quite simple," Hiei snapped irritably, pulling the umbrella from his belt. "I will use this device in its boat form to travel across the river. When I get to the other side, I'll change it back into this spear form and throw it back over to you all."

"You're gonna… Use an umbrella to get across the river?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yes, it's quite simple, fool!" Hiei snorted.

"Who are you, Mary Poppins?" Kuwabara asked. "Heh, I guess you do kinda look like her in that coat and those pointy little boots."

"Idiot!" Hiei cursed, snapping open the umbrella.

"This… Can't be for real…" Yusuke said slowly. "Can it?"

He turned his question to Kurama, who was frowning and showing concern in his eyes, but his mouth was twitching in and out of an amused smirk.

"He's not seriously…?" Kuwabara muttered.

"Oh dear," Kurama whispered as Hiei dropped the umbrella into the rapids upside-down and leapt in after it.

Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara watched with wide eyes as Hiei attempted to drop himself into the underside of the umbrella, and in an instant it snapped beneath his weight, and both Hiei and the umbrella were dragged under the raging current of the river.

"Oh… My… God!" Kuwabara cried. "This is the funniest thing I have ever seen!"

Yusuke began to smile too, but Kurama began to grow concerned as Hiei and the umbrella took off down the river.

"I don't know that Hiei knows how to swim," he commented.

"Seriously?" Yusuke asked.

"He'll be fine," Kuwabara said dismissively. "He's a fire demon, right? And fire is strong against water, right?"

"No you idiot!" Yusuke snapped. "It's the other way around! Water puts out fire, remember? Gees, it's no wonder my body nearly got burned that time I was dead! Lucky for me it was Keiko that found me and not you, otherwise I wouldn't even be here right now! And probably neither would you!"

"Hey gimme a break, it's still funny, right? He thought the umbrella was a boat!"

"Yeah I know, that was awesome!"

"Let's talk about this all the time and laugh at him."

"Okay, but let's go help Kurama rescue him first, okay?"

"Huh? Oh, right, yeah."

Yusuke and Kuwabara began running after Kurama, who was already sprinting along the riverbank. Ahead of Kurama, flashes of black and white tumbled over in the water, interspersed with angry, choking snarls. Before Yusuke and Kuwabara had caught up to Kurama they saw him pull something from his hair and throw it forwards. A few seconds later a tree shot out of the middle of the river, rapidly growing tall and thick at a sloped angle, tangling Hiei in its branches and dragging him out of the water.

All three stopped as they drew level with the slanted tree, watching the branches pulling Hiei higher into the air. He was trashing about and cursing so badly that even Yusuke learned a few new words to use the next time he was angry, but somehow between his long coat, the branches of the tree and the frame of the now mangled umbrella, Hiei had become stuck fast.

"Shouldn't we go up there and cut him down or something?" Yusuke asked.

"Are you crazy, Urameshi?" Kuwabara echoed. "I'm not going anywhere near that little shrimp when he's as mad as that! He'll probably kill us all!"

"I'll go," Kurama said, before launching himself from the riverbank.

"We'll wait here, Kurama!" Kuwabara called after him.

"I still can't believe he thought an umbrella was a boat," Yusuke muttered as Kurama scaled the tree. "Where the hell did he even get a stupid idea like that from?"

Kuwabara gasped.

"What are you looking at me for?" he demanded.

"You shouldn't play jokes on Hiei, dumbass," Yusuke scolded him. "He really might kill you. Look at what happened when he thought you'd got Yukina pregnant."

"Okay first of all, I didn't tell Hiei umbrellas were boats," Kuwabara defended himself. "And secondly, my love for Yukina has nothing to do with Hiei. Though between you and me, I think Hiei has the hots for Yukina. I've seen the way he looks at her when he thinks nobody else is around."

"That is sick on so many levels…" Yusuke muttered.

"Maybe that vine of the guilty caught him because he's the guilty one."

"What?"

"Maybe he's the one who's been interfering with Yukina."

Yusuke's face dropped. He almost wished that he could tell Kuwabara the truth about Yukina's relationship to Hiei, but as he heard Hiei greeting Kurama with the most violent verbal outburst he had ever heard – both in and outside of his imagination – he decided against it.

"You've lost the right to talk for the rest of the day," he said instead, turning away from Kuwabara.

Up the tree, Kurama had crawled out onto the branch Hiei was tangled amongst, though Hiei seemed even more annoyed by his presence than he had been when he was left tangled on his own.

"Let me guess: I have to stop struggling and let some self-righteous bastard untangle me?" Hiei hissed up at Kurama.

"Not quite," Kurama calmly replied. "First of all, you should probably take off your coat. It's your coat that's caught, not you."

Hiei called Kurama a few unrepeatable names and then suggested that after he remove his coat, Kurama should shove it somewhere anatomically improbable, but removed his coat all the same, finding himself almost entirely freed. He tugged one leg up sharply, tearing his clothing a little but managing to free himself entirely. He then dragged himself up onto the topside of the branch, where he paused to angrily kick the tangled remains of the umbrella from his left foot.

"It must have been malfunctioning," he spat out when he caught Kurama eying him with a slight air of amusement. "Probably because I took it demon world. It's probably ensorcelled by some sort of spirit world barrier."

"Hiei, it was an umbrella," Kurama flatly replied.

"Call it what you will, it was working fine when I found it in the human world," Hiei sneered.

"No, Hiei, it's an umbrella," Kurama patiently repeated. "It's used to protect against the rain."

"It's what?"

"Humans use umbrellas to shelter themselves from the rain."

Hiei glanced downwards as though he expected to still see the umbrella, despite having kicked it into the water, where it had been rapidly carried off.

"Are you sure?" he asked, turning back to Kurama.

"Yes, Hiei, I'm positive," Kurama replied.

Hiei looked down again, looking towards the point the umbrella had disappeared.

"Then why did that woman have it?" he asked, turning to Kurama.

"Probably to shelter herself from the rain," Kurama replied. "More to the point, why did you take somebody else's umbrella?"

"I thought it was a spirit world weapon," Hiei muttered.

"No, it's just something humans use to shelter themselves from the rain. Surely you've seen them before during your time in the living world?"

"But…"

Hiei muttered a few indecipherable curses before reaching down and tugging at his coat. When it did not come free after several failed attempts, Hiei grabbed out his sword and swung it at the smaller branches wrapped around his coat, hacking away until his coat was free. He then stood up and turned around, surprised to see that Kurama had leapt back onto the body of the tree.

"You cut too much, the whole branch is going to fall," Kurama called to him.

Hiei heard a crack and he took off at his top speed to avoid landing in the water again. He joined Kurama halfway down the tree and together they leapt to the ground again by Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Hey Hiei," Yusuke said with a grin. "What happened to your boat?"

"Hey, he sunk his battleship!" Kuwabara said.

"That's not funny," Yusuke muttered.

Hiei opened his mouth to tell them both exactly what he thought of them but stopped short as a strange beeping sound started emanating from his coat.

"That sounds like a communicator, but it's not mine," Yusuke said.

Hiei's face shifted into a look of curious interest and he shoved a hand into the fold of his coat, producing a communicator a second later.

"Hey, that's my communicator!" Kuwabara said. "You took it from me last night! Give it back, someone must be looking for me!"

Hiei eyed Kuwabara over before flipping open the device, finding a familiar face looking out of it at him.

* * *

"Kuwabara!" Botan said. "What took you so long to… Wait… Hiei?"

Botan stopped and lowered herself to the ground as the distinct sensation that she would fall off her oar if she did not go down hit her. For some unfathomable reason, Hiei had answered Kuwabara's communicator, and he looked absurd. His hair was plastered flat against his head and down the sides of his face, and even as she stared at him she could see water dripping off the end of his nose, eyelashes and chin.

"Hiei, are you alright?" she asked cautiously. "I didn't get you out of the bath, did I?"

Hiei's eyes widened a little and Botan realised what she had just said. She felt her face grow hot and silently cursed the communicator for being a video one. She tried to cover her mistake, but one part of her mind decided to be rebellious, and images of Hiei lying naked in a bathtub began consuming her thoughts.

"What do you want?" he asked, his tone every bit as biting and unpleasant as ever.

"Oh, well, I was looking for Kuwabara, actually," she replied, glad that he was ignoring both her suggestion and her obvious embarrassment.

"You shouldn't be calling us here, it's dangerous," Hiei said. "What if we were to be seen speaking to a spirit world pawn like you?"

Botan felt the heat drain from her face: nothing like a deeply personal insult to sober the mood and focus the mind, she thought bitterly.

"Could you please let me speak to Kuwabara?" she asked sweetly. "I won't take much of his time, I promise."

Botan saw Kuwabara's head appear in the top part of the communicator screen.

"Hey Botan!" he called to her. "I'm over here!"

"Yes, she'll just jump through the screen now and get to you," Hiei drawled, a pained expression rising on his face.

"Kuwabara, I need you to come back to the living world!" Botan called back to him. "It's very important! Just you, nobody else!"

"Okay, Botan!" Kuwabara called to her.

"What sort of underhanded trickery is this?" Hiei asked Botan.

"It's not a trick, Hiei," Botan replied. "It's something very important. I don't want to talk about it right now, not if you say I might be overheard. I'll tell you all later tonight when you get back."

"Hn, that won't be necessary," Hiei said. "You've been replaced. Your infantile superior sent us another ferry girl to take care of our menial tasks. She seems more intelligent and sensible than you, she probably knows more about what's going on than you do too."

"Hiei, that's very rude."

"It was a statement of fact."

"That other ferry girl has a name, you know. It's Ayame. And you're right, she is very intelligent and sensible, and she probably does know a lot more than I do."

Botan saw one of Hiei's eyes twitch and his expression shift slightly as though she had just said something that had severely displeased him and he was struggling to hide his reaction. His face remained tight for several seconds before he managed to cover his mood with an arrogant smirk.

"Hn, but I suppose the useful one will be taken away now that you're back," he said. "I despised her greatly, but I did much prefer her to you."

Botan felt a slight sting in her eyes as though she wanted to cry. Was it her imagination or was Hiei being particularly cruel?

"You don't have to worry about that," she said, forcing a brilliant smile. "I'm not coming back. I have something else I have to take care of, and after that I'm going back to spirit world. You probably won't see me again until the demon world tournament."

"Too soon by far."

Botan's smile slipped and tears began to threaten.

"Tell Kuwabara to meet me at Genkai's," she said sharply, before snapping the communicator shut to terminate the link.

She sighed, clenching a fist around the communicator as she began to shake. She told herself that it was anger and frustration making her upset, and nothing more. Hiei had always been rude and offensive towards her and it had never upset her before: it was a part of his nature that she had simply accepted without question. During her many years ferrying souls Botan had encountered a wide variety of personalities, and working for a petulant child like Koenma had made patience and understanding necessary attributes for her to possess.

But something felt different.

Botan rarely cried, and she was determined that she was not about to cry over a few harsh words from a typically harsh demon; instead she whipped out her oar and leapt onto it, taking off as fast as she could, redirecting her emotional energy into powering her flight back to Genkai's. It was hard for her not to think of Hiei though, she had been thinking about him the night before when she had decided to try sleeping in a tree – she had been curious to know how it felt, but regretted her decision in the morning as she had woken up with a sore neck and back. And when she had awoken, Hiei had been the first thought on her mind. She suspected that she had been dreaming about him, though as always she could not remember her dreams on waking. She had woken up with such a strong sense of his presence that she had almost believed that he had been there with her: a breeze had blown over her from nowhere on waking, and she could have sworn that it carried Hiei's unique scent.

That was, of course, a ridiculous notion, Botan told herself. She had awoken quite early in the day, but she was sure that Hiei had probably already left for demon world by then. And even if he had still been in the living world, he would not have been anywhere near the remote location she had spent the night in.

As Botan neared Genkai's temple in what she was sure was record timing, she was almost relieved to hear her communicator beeping at her side. She slowed and brought herself down at the top of the temple steps before flipping open her communicator, slightly surprised to see Koenma looking back at her.

"Lord Koenma," she greeted him.

"Botan, why haven't you found me a new spirit detective yet?" he yelled back at her.

"Sir, you called me an hour ago and asked me to stop looking for a new spirit detective," she pointed out. "You said I could just recall Kuwabara from demon world and use him for this mission."

"That doesn't sound like something I would say," Koenma replied.

"But you did, Sir," Botan insisted. "You spoke to Yusuke, and he told you the team have located the territory the troublemakers are hiding in, and you said that they were so close to finding answers they no longer needed to keep Kuwabara in demon world with them, so he could come back here to help me with my task."

Koenma tapped a finger against his desk a little impatiently.

"Are you alright, Sir?" Botan asked him gently.

"No I'm not alright, Botan!" he snapped back. "I sent that ogre out to get me breakfast twenty minutes ago, and I'm still waiting!"

Botan smiled.

"Don't worry Sir, I'm sure George is taking longer because he's making sure he gets the very best for you," she said.

"That's one way of looking at it," Koenma muttered. "I think the ogre is just lazy. He's probably fallen asleep somewhere! How am I supposed to concentrate on all this work on an empty stomach?"

"Cheer up Lord Koenma!" Botan insisted. "I can see Kuwabara coming back here already, that means we can set off today and by tonight we might have already found what we're looking for. Won't that be super?"

"Super? How can you use a word like that when I just told you I'm suffering from starvation?"

"I'm… Not quite sure I understand, Sir…"

"Super? Sounds like soup?"

Botan laughed nervously, waving a hand at Kuwabara, who was on his way up the temple steps, hoping to hurry his progress.

"Take heart Lord Koenma, soon you'll be enjoying a wonderful breakfast," she tried.

"Stop talking about food and start finding me a new spirit detective!" Koenma yelled back at her.

"We don't need the new spirit detective any more –"

"Right, stop talking about a new spirit detective and start finding me that artefact!"

"Okay dokay, Sir!"

Koenma terminated the link abruptly, and though ordinarily Botan would be offended by his rudeness, she was more relieved that he had simply hung up on her rather than sentenced her to some sort of punishment: she had narrowly avoided unfair punishments on more than a few occasions because she had caught Koenma in a bad mood, so she considered herself especially lucky this time.

"Hey Botan, what's up?" Kuwabara asked as he joined her by the gate.

"I have good news and I have bad news, Kuwabara," she replied.

"Okay, tell me the bad news first," he groaned.

"The bad news is, we have to make a long journey," she said. "We're going back to the portal in the south where we discovered people had been going missing."

"Why didn't you ask me to meet you there? I had to travel across demon world to get through the portal nearest here, I could have been at that other site in minutes!"

"Really? Oh dear, I am sorry!"

"Well since we're here, I'm going to check on Yukina."

Botan opened her mouth to protest, but decided that it was best she let Kuwabara enjoy himself whilst he still could: the task that lay ahead of them that day was going to be extremely physically and spiritually trying on him, and Botan was keenly aware that she was going to have to be as sweet and motivating towards him as possible.

"Alrighty!" she agreed, heading towards the temple. "I suppose a short tea-break won't do us any harm!"

Kuwabara, who was already ahead of her, appeared not to even have heard her: apparently he had already decided that they were having a break regardless of her opinion on the matter. Botan followed after him, entering the temple. She left him to thunder around the building hollering for Yukina in a most ungainly manner, taking herself to the kitchen and preparing a bowl of tea. As she waited for the tea to stew, Botan found her mind wandering off topic again, and she began to tense.

Botan was unsure when or how it had happened, but she did now know that her feelings for Hiei had changed. When she thought about it, she was not really sure that she had felt anything for him before, except perhaps worry and fascination when she watched him fight. But recently that had changed. Hiei himself had not changed and Botan was almost certain that she had not changed either, but there was no denying that things between them had changed. She could not shake the idea that the physical contact they had shared over the past several days was indicative of Hiei having deeper feelings for her too. He had not exactly been tender and loving in his gestures, but he was Hiei, and Botan doubted that Hiei even understood the definition of the words tender and loving, let alone how to put them into practise.

Botan peered into her bowl of tea to check on its progress, seeing a watery image of her own face reflected back at her. She had a wry smile on her face, one that she had not been aware of until she saw it looking back out of the bowl at her. She knew why it was there though: the sensible part of her mind was laughing at her for even thinking that someone like Hiei could have feelings for someone like her. She was almost sure that he did have feelings for her, but she had no idea how to draw them out, and no amount of advice from Shizuru or Keiko had helped her with that. She was not the sort of girl who could confidently approach a man, least of all one who happened to be a powerful demon, and Hiei was a particularly difficult person to discuss feelings with since he always denied having any. Hiei denied himself a relationship with Yukina, despite his love for her being obvious to anyone who saw them together, so, as frustrating as it was for her, Botan had to admit that Hiei would probably never let himself love anyone in a romantic sense.

"Love is an illusion. A worthless and wasted ideal," she said quietly in her best Hiei voice. "Nothing but a word invented by humans."

Botan let out a short, bitter laugh as she wondered if Hiei had ever experienced Valentine's Day during his time in the living world. She then saw her face droop in her reflection as she realised that she had never experienced Valentine's Day or White Day, for that matter: at least not in the sense that most human girls did. She had observed both taking place, become caught up in the excitement Keiko experienced every year, but Botan herself had never given or received a single card or flower.

Botan narrowed her eyes. Keiko enjoyed White Day. Yusuke was more romantic than Hiei: and typically Yusuke forgot all about White Day (despite Keiko always gifting him with something the month before on Valentine's Day), and he usually ended up calling Botan or Kuwabara to cover for him whilst he threw something together to hide his own forgetfulness. And he complained for days afterwards about the expense and silliness of it all.

Botan loved the expense and silliness of Valentine's Day and White Day, and she longed to be a part of them, even just once. A glance at a calendar hanging on a nearby wall reminded her that it was February again, and she had not even thought about giving a gift to anyone, and looked set to miss it that year. Not that this was surprising to her, as she had, the year before, completely missed both days, which had gone by without her seeing or hearing about them at all; Yusuke must have employed Kuwabara's services to cover his tracks the year before, or perhaps he had arranged for Kurama to plant a field of enchanted roses somewhere. It went without question that Hiei would despise Valentine's Day, since he despised the concepts of romance and love. He would probably have some sort of fit if he was made to go to a nice restaurant in a tuxedo and eat fine foods before dancing to the music of a string quartet and then going home to lie on a bed covered with rose petals for…

Botan dropped her spoon into the bowl of tea with a clatter, her eyes growing wide. She had found other males attractive in the past, but those feelings had never been more than a fleeting fancy, and certainly they had never occupied her thoughts like her feelings for Hiei were starting to do.

And more importantly, her thoughts had never wandered to the ultimate acts of physical intimacy like they did whenever she spent longer than a few minutes thinking about Hiei.

Botan grabbed one hand at the kitchen worktop and the other at her chest as that rushing, prickling feeling of bursting bubbles burned in her chest again. She was not even thinking about anything specific, and yet her legs were growing weak beneath her. This was madness!

"Think rational thoughts, Botan," she quietly told herself.

Hiei is a demon, and he lives in demon world, she told herself. He has a job and an obligation there. I am a ferry girl and I live in spirit world. I have a job and an obligation there. Even if we both wanted it, it could never happen.

And getting Hiei to admit his feelings or even to truly confess hers would be impossible. There was no way to even begin such an arduous task. It was over before it even began.

Botan looked at the calendar again. It was actually February 13th, she realised miserably, which would probably explain why she had seen Yukina fabricating something secretly in her room, and why Keiko had vanished: they would both be giving gifts to their loved ones the next day. Botan found her wry smile again as she remembered that Yukina did not even understand what Valentine's Day was, and she did not understand romance at all. But, unlike her miserable twin brother, Yukina was at least kind enough to make the effort to please her friend who she knew cared for her.

"Hey Botan, let's go."

Botan turned in surprise, finding Kuwabara standing by the doorway, looking exceptionally pale.

"Goodness Kuwabara, you look terrible!" she gasped. "Are you alright?"

"Yukina won't let me in her room," he replied, hanging his head sorrowfully. "She got really upset when I tried to go in."

Botan began to grind her teeth – which was interesting because it was something that she had never done before – because apparently her suspicions were correct: all the other girls were preparing for Valentine's Day. That sentimental fool Koenma would probably even let them all have the day off from their investigations to celebrate, and Botan would only be made all the more aware that she had nobody to give a gift too. And she was sure that she had so many better gift ideas than any of the other girls too: she had certainly spent many years planning it out.

"Kuwabara?" she said abruptly.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"When you graduate, do not, no matter how tempting it may seem at the time, do not, I repeat do not, take on a career as a ferry girl! A soft-hearted boy like you couldn't bear the lifestyle!"

Kuwabara slowly narrowed his eyes.

"Okay…"

"Right then, let's be off."

Botan marched past Kuwabara, summoning her oar as she navigated the hallways for the front door.

"Hey Botan?" Kuwabara called after her. "What's the good news?"

"What's the what?"

Botan did not stop until she was outside, whereupon she hopped onto her oar and turned to Kuwabara expectantly.

"When I got here you said you had good news and bad news," he said, giving her a faint sense of déjà vu. "I got the bad news, so what's the good news?"

"Oh right, of course, silly me!"

Botan smiled, glad of the distraction her answer was going to give her.

"Lord Koenma had some spirit world scholars study that document you found in demon world," she said, patting her oar to indicate that Kuwabara should climb on behind her. "It was a diagram of an ancient spirit world artefact known as "The Stolen Moment"."

Kuwabara jumped on behind Botan and her oar dipped a little under his weight before she righted it and hoisted them up into the air.

"Wow, the guys we're looking for really are in Mukuro's territory then, huh?" Kuwabara asked.

Botan turned her head to stare at him in disbelief.

"Hey, face forward!" he argued.

Botan jerked them up higher to be sure that they would not collide with anything and to allow her to keep her pink eyes intensely fixed onto Kuwabara's worried black ones.

"Why are you not shocked, Mister Kuwabara?" she asked sternly.

"Huh?" he echoed. "Shocked about what? The Stolen Moment is the whole reason we're doing this, right? The last person who tried to destroy it failed, so they tried to hide it here in the living world, some criminals from demon world found out about it somehow and now they're trying to get it for themselves. They've been abducting humans because they're looking for the person who knows how to use it."

Botan turned her head so sharply her ponytail lashed Kuwabara across the face with enough force to make him moan in complaint. Damn Koenma, keeping secrets from her like she was some sort of untrustworthy, loud-mouthed fool! Botan bared her teeth and pushed on faster, ignoring Kuwabara's complaints behind her. This mission was turning into a complete disaster: she almost wished Ayame had been the mission manager instead of her from the start. Botan began to think that she was not actually the mission manager, that she never had been. In fact, all she had been was a messenger girl, and all the mission had done so far was teach her that she was attracted to Hiei.

Kuwabara cried out as Botan's oar shuddered in the air.

"Oopsie!" she called over her shoulder. "A little turbulence!"

Botan decided not to think about Hiei again while they were still airborne. In fact, she thought, she might not ever be able to think about Hiei when she was airborne again. She decided to conclude him out of her thoughts for that day with one simple idea. Her idea was a little unorthodox, but then again, so was having romantic feelings for a man like Hiei. It was begging to be criticised, ridiculed and possibly set alight or else consumed by the dragon of the darkness flame: but it was also perhaps Botan's only chance to convey her feelings.

She was going to give him a gift the next day. That, she decided, would let him know that she did care, and if he cared even in the slightest, it gave him a chance to express himself back. She was braver than him in this one aspect, and so she would lay her feelings bare before him and let him decide what should happen next.

"Hold on tightly, Kuwabara!" she called, before forcing herself on faster still.

* * *

Yusuke crouched lower behind a rock, nodding at Kurama, who was a short way behind him, concealed behind another rock. Kurama looked up at the roof of a nearby abandoned building, where Hiei was barely visible by the guttering. Hiei drew out his sword and nodded, and Kurama produced a rose, nodding at Yusuke. Yusuke pounced out from behind the rock and charged at the underground bunker ahead of them, kicking down the door and scurrying down the internal stairs two steps at a time. Within a matter of seconds Kurama was at his heels and Hiei had shot past them.

Thanks to his speed and impetuousness, Hiei was first into the belly of the bunker, landing hard onto a stack of boxes facing a battered old table, around which sat five demons, all playing some sort of card game. They all stopped and glared at him with varying looks of interest, but none of them moved to attack or said anything about the intrusion. The moment dragged on a little but was eventually interrupted by the arrival of Kurama and Yusuke.

"Alright you bastards, which one of you is in charge?" Yusuke demanded.

The demons all glanced at Yusuke, glanced at Kurama and then settled their eyes back on Hiei.

"Hey Hiei," a panther demon called to them. "Who are your friends?"

Yusuke and Kurama turned sharply to Hiei, who looked a little surprised.

"Do I know you?" Hiei demanded.

"Sure you do," the panther replied with a shrug. "If you're looking for The Stolen Moment, we haven't found it yet. To be honest, we weren't sure when exactly to start looking. It's not meant to appear until later tonight, right? Unless your old lady got it wrong, of course."

"What?" Hiei snapped, his eyes flashing impatiently.

"Maybe the little guy doesn't remember us," a horned demon whispered to the panther demon.

"Hiei?" Yusuke hissed, leaning closer to him. "Anything you want to tell us?"

Hiei glared at him.

"Are you questioning my loyalty?" Hiei growled. "Again?"

"Hiei, we all trust you," Kurama gently assured him. "I hope that trust has not been misplaced."

"How dare you?" Hiei snarled, rounding on Kurama.

"So Hiei, who are your friends?" the panther asked. "And hey, how's that twin sister of yours? What was her name? Yukina?"

Hiei's face slowly dropped. Yusuke looked over the top of Hiei's head at Kurama and the two exchanged uncertain looks and shrugs of confusion.

"Hiei, you need to start explaining why these guys know you," Yusuke warned him.

"We're old friends," the panther answered. "We decided to stay here to search the living world, since Hiei is Mukuro's uh… "Partner". We thought we'd be safe here. We've had a few problems with humans appearing around here, but we've been taking care of that – for obvious reasons. We needed them out of the way on the other side too, right?"

Yusuke looked over at Kurama again, finding that even the cool and calm fox demon looked a little ruffled by what he was hearing.

"Well shit," Yusuke grumbled.

* * *

Kuwabara was complaining. A lot. Botan was tired of reminding him that he was wasting energy that would be better channelled into the task at hand, so she ignored him as best she could. They were high on the hill by the lake where she had been bitten by a snake: the thought of which kept invoking images of Hiei, his arms entangled in her legs and his lips on her inner thigh. Botan had to fight to suppress the thoughts, if only because they were making her sweat, despite the temperature being substantially lower at the altitude they had reached.

Botan cleared her throat and concentrated on the task she had set herself. She had not seen the alleged illustration of The Stolen Moment the others had recovered from demon world, but she knew enough of the artefact to know that she had her own information on it. She had studied it during her ferry girl training many centuries ago, and even then it had been considered a possible legend as nobody had seen or heard of it in so long that it made them question its very existence. It was, as she recalled, a simple device, that basically granted one wish before self-destructing; but the potential effect of that wish was what made it arguably the most powerful and sought-after item ever produced by spirit world.

"Bingo, Botan, you've won the prize!" Botan muttered to herself as she found the relevant page in her notebook.

Unfortunately, the notes she had made were pretty old and shabby. Her notebook had been well-handled over the years – so much so in fact that she had been forced to place a protection spell upon it long ago to prevent it from falling into complete decay – and some of her older writings were almost entirely illegible. Although her writing around The Stolen Moment was not entirely clear, she had conveniently drawn a sketch of it that had remained quite clear. She could still see the characters that patterned the surface of the artefact itself, which were in fact a cryptic riddle explaining the instructions of use.

"Light the fuse, don't hold your breath, for just eight seconds, be life or death, The Stolen Moment is just one hour, therein lies the secret power," Botan whispered to herself. "Oh dear. I think I forgot everything else I learned in class without checking books or asking Ayame, but I remembered that silly little rhyme."

Botan sighed, wondering why her brain had chosen to remember it so clearly. She could even clearly remember being told exactly what it meant: anyone wishing to use The Stolen Moment had to light the fuse, and then they had exactly eight seconds to communicate the moment they wished to steal. After eight seconds, the fuse reached the body of The Stolen Moment, which was said to then explode, transporting the person holding it to wherever they had wished to be. It was essentially a time travel device, but it only worked once, it only did exactly what the person asked of it during those eight seconds, and it only let the user stay in their chosen time period for one hour. After that, the person was thrown back through time to a split second after they had made the wish, and they were left to figure out the consequences of their actions.

And, Botan had been taught, there would always be consequences.

A truly dangerous item indeed, Botan thought. She had once spoken to Ayame about it, and even the level-headed Ayame had admitted that she would go mad if she ever held The Stolen Moment. The temptation to use it, Ayame had said, was simply too great for any soul, no matter how pure and righteous. But the madness would come from trying to pick the right moment to steal. The Stolen Moment only worked once, it only gave its user one chance, one moment and one hour to change history. Or not, as Ayame had also pointed out. Even if ruining history and sending yourself back into a new dimension where you might not even exist was not your aim, who could resist the opportunity to go back and time and witness some of the great events of the past?

But Koenma's instructions to Botan had been clear: find The Stolen Moment and destroy it as soon as possible. He had wanted her to recruit a new spirit detective for the task because a new, open mind that had no knowledge of spirit world and their affairs would not ask any awkward questions or possibly take The Stolen Moment for their own use. But, as Yusuke had reported back that demon world had detailed knowledge of the artefact through an ancient sketch of it that had been found there, Koenma had become desperate and asked Botan to take Kuwabara to find it. Truthfully they had no idea where the artefact was – it might be in demon world after all – but Koenma was hoping that Kuwabara might be able to sense it, after he had experienced such a strong reaction to seeing the image of it.

And so it was that Botan was sat on the hillside by an apparently abandoned farm, watching Kuwabara dig up a field.

But as she watched him dig, Botan was starting to have her doubts.

Koenma had paid her one compliment recently, despite his hiding information from her and being more bossy than usual lately: he had told her that he trusted her, and her alone, to destroy The Stolen Moment. He had told her that a soul as honest and content as hers had no regrets and no arrogant ideals about going back in time to rewrite history. She would be able to hold The Stolen Moment, light the fuse, and think of nothing for eight seconds, after which it would detonate with no effect.

But Koenma had been wrong. There was something Botan wanted to change, and it involved a little three-eyed fire demon.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (Takes a deep breath) Hiei's connection to the demons looking for The Stolen Moment is revealed, Ayame reports an important discovery to Koenma, the race is on the find the artefact before it is misused, but when something tragic happens it appears the gang may already be too late. (Well that wasn't so bad, but seriously, loads of action in the next chapter!) **Chapter 13: The Thief**.


	13. The Thief

**A/N:** I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 **Recap:** Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei found the troublemakers they were looking for in demon world, but the gang seemed to know Hiei. Meanwhile, Botan and Kuwabara set off to search for missing item the demons were looking for.

* * *

 **Chapter 13: The Thief**

"Hey Kurama, you're a smart one," Yusuke said, his tone hinting at his increasing nervousness. "Any ideas what move we make next?"

Kurama did not answer Yusuke, his eyes fixed on the five demons sat before them. Yusuke saw one of Kurama's hands make a small movement, as though he had just snuck something invisibly from his sleeve, the sight of which did little to ease Yusuke's concerns.

"You all better start speaking the truth, or I'll have to force it out of you!" Hiei warned, pointing his sword at the gang.

"Your old lady was right, you did grow up to be a moody little bastard, didn't you?" the panther asked, grinning at him.

Hiei bared his teeth but said nothing.

"Look, we're just here because the living world are noticing bodies going missing," Yusuke said, hoping to alleviate the situation. "We just want to know where they are and to make sure that it stops."

And, Yusuke thought darkly, he wanted to find out without having to fight Hiei.

"We're not looking for trouble," the panther said. "Just The Stolen Moment."

"Nobody knows where that is," Yusuke answered him.

"This little guy ought to know," the panther replied, pointing a claw at Hiei.

"Don't you think that if I knew where it was, I would have used it or sold it by now?" Hiei shot back.

"You see it's statements like that that make us doubt you…" Yusuke muttered.

"How did you find out about The Stolen Moment?" Kurama asked.

"Hiei's old lady told us," the panther replied.

Kurama nodded.

"I'm afraid information on that artefact is classified," he said. "I'm sure you appreciate how dangerous it could be if others found out about such a device."

"We haven't told anyone," the panther replied. "We're gonna use it ourselves."

"Not gonna happen," Yusuke said. "And since it's only the five of you that know about it, I'd say the quickest solution to our problem is to make sure that you five don't live long enough to tell anyone else. Hiei, are you with us?"

"What a stupid question!" Hiei snapped. "Kill them all, but leave the panther. I think he could prove useful."

Yusuke glanced at Hiei and then at Kurama, who nodded that he agreed. Yusuke was a little wary about sparing the apparent leader of the group, but decided that he had no other choice but to trust Hiei.

"Well, you've never let me down before, Hiei," he said with a shrug. "I've got your back if you've got mine."

Yusuke leapt off of the boxes and charged at the demon gang with Kurama and Hiei following closely behind him.

* * *

Botan wondered which moment she would pick, which exact second in time she would choose to steal and reinvent to her own liking.

"Koenma said as soon as I find it I have to leave here," Kuwabara said at her side, before sipping at his bottle of water. "He said I shouldn't even touch it, the temptation would be too much for me. And I gotta say, when I saw that picture of it, it made me feel sick just to look at it."

Two days, two weeks, two months, two years or twenty-two years: was there even a specific moment? Did it even matter for what she hoped to achieve? Accuracy was possibly not an essential element of her plan.

"I don't think I would use it though," Kuwabara continued. "I'm pretty happy with my life. I like studying now, I've found my true love – Yukina, of course – and I've got some great friends and we've been through a lot together. If I went back in time all of that might change, and that would suck."

Botan came to the conclusion that she did not actually have to even pick a precise day. She did, however, have to worry about the consequences. That had been the key part of her lesson on The Stolen Moment: the consequences. How would she deal with the new world her actions would create? If she went back very far, would Kuwabara still know who she was? Would he ever have become part of the spirit detective team who faced so many great challenges? Would he ever meet Yukina? And what of Yusuke and Kurama? Would Yusuke just die that day he saved the boy from being hit by a car? Would Kurama lose his life to the Forlorn Hope when he tried to save his own dying mother? Who would Genkai give her powers to before she died?

"Everything happens the way it does for a reason," Kuwabara said. "This is the life we made for ourselves, why would we even want to change it? If we want to change things we need to change them for the future, not in the past."

Did she even have the right to use the device, to change the pasts of Kuwabara, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, Genkai, Keiko and so many others?

"And besides, it's a stupid thing," Kuwabara said, standing up. "Eight seconds to make your decision. Even if you made it before you lit the fuse, could you honestly say that you wouldn't change your mind part way through? And what if you did? You could end up somewhere horrible, forced to relive a horrible part of your life, forced to watch it happen again or to interfere, knowing that if you did, you could destroy everything in everyone else's lives afterwards. I say the sooner we find this thing and destroy it, the better."

Kuwabara started back towards the field, grabbing up his shovel again to once more dig around the area he had sensed something amiss.

Botan stood up and summoned her oar, following after him.

"I'm going to help, I think it's the least I can do," she said as she joined Kuwabara by the hole he was creating.

"You're gonna use your oar to dig?" he asked.

"Why not?" she asked with a smile.

He nodded and together they began digging.

* * *

The underground bunker was a wreck – not that it had been particularly tidy or in tact before – and little remained of the gang of demons who had been playing cards there only minutes earlier. In one corner of the room Kurama was recovering his rose whip from a dismembered body and in another Yusuke was kicking aside the remains of the table that had been in the centre of the room. By the foot of the steps Hiei was standing over the panther demon, his hands bunched into his clothing.

"You had better start making sense," Hiei warned him. "I'm going to ask you again, and if I don't like the answer you give me this time, I'll remove whatever part of your body my hand touches first."

"I already told you, we got the information from your mother!" the panther shouted back desperately. "You were there, don't you remember?"

"Liar!" Hiei roared.

He raised one hand above his head but before he could swing it back down at his victim he felt a hand grip his arm around the elbow, halting his advance. He looked back angrily, finding Kurama holding his arm and watching him with his usual air of indifference.

"Perhaps this is the wrong approach," he said.

"And what would you suggest, fox?" Hiei spat back.

"Allow me," Kurama replied.

Hiei reluctantly stepped back, slowly releasing his hold of the panther demon. Kurama released Hiei's arm and stepped forwards, reaching one hand into his hair. He produced a seed which he promptly poked into a gash by the panther's collarbone.

"I've sowed the seeds of the truth plant and the death plant in you," he said. "If you start talking, you won't be killed."

The panther shook his head.

"I'm telling you the truth!" he insisted.

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly and Hiei started towards the panther again.

"Whoa there, little guy," Yusuke said, hooking his arms around Hiei's from behind.

"Get off of me detective, or I will kill you!" Hiei snarled at him.

"You've got to calm down, Hiei," Yusuke answered him. "We'll never get any answers out of this guy if you kill him."

"It would appear that he is telling us the truth," Kurama said quietly. "Or at least, he thinks that he is telling us the truth, which is practically the same thing."

"What?" Hiei roared, struggling against Yusuke's hold.

"I am telling you the truth!" the panther insisted. "We got that diagram of The Stolen Moment from Hiei's mother! She told us it would appear around here after 99 years, and it could be used to travel back in time and change one moment in history!"

"You filthy liar!" Hiei shouted, kicking back at Yusuke and managing to slide his arms free. "My mother is dead! And even when she was still alive, she never left the ice village!"

Kurama muttered something indecipherable and Hiei's head snapped around, his blazing crimson eyes fixing onto him.

"Say that again, fox," he said in a low voice.

Kurama glanced at Yusuke before answering.

"Your mother must have left the ice village at least once," he said quietly. "Otherwise you would not be here."

Hiei shook his head slightly.

"Maybe so, but that would have happened before I was born," he pointed out. "This fool is telling us about something that happened a year after I was born."

"Maybe he's telling the truth," Yusuke said with a shrug. "I mean come on, him and his gang were pretty weak, why would he bother trying to lie to us now? Maybe your mother did know about The Stolen Moment Hiei, and maybe she was the one who drew that diagram."

The last word of Yusuke's speech barely left his mouth before Hiei's fist connected with his jaw. Yusuke was sent back a step, rising one arm almost on instinct as Hiei tried to hit again with his other fist.

"Can you describe what the woman looked like?" Kurama asked.

Yusuke shoved Hiei back from him, but, undeterred, Hiei launched himself at Yusuke and tackled him to the ground.

"She was really crazy," the panther began. "She was bald, and she was dressed in really weird clothes. She spoke in riddles and she had a strange tattoo on the palm of her hand. She was obsessed with time and she kept saying she didn't have long left, like she thought she was gonna die soon."

Hiei froze, one hand gripped around Yusuke's throat, the other balled into a fist and poised above his head. Slowly the sneer on his face eased and his grip on Yusuke lessened.

"Sound familiar?" Yusuke asked him.

Hiei took his hand from Yusuke's throat and let both his arms fall by his sides.

"Kill him, Kurama," he said quietly. "I understand now."

A short scream permeated the air, followed by the tearing of flesh and mass spreading of blood. Hiei got to his feet and turned to Kurama.

"I think he was speaking the truth, though he didn't understand the facts," Hiei said.

Yusuke got to his feet with a small grin.

"So your mother was bald and crazy with tattoos?" he asked.

"That woman was not my mother," Hiei sharply corrected him. "I barely even remember her, most of my knowledge of the event is based on what I was told about her."

"So there was a woman with knowledge of The Stolen Moment 99 years ago," Kurama said.

"Yes," Hiei confirmed. "I was told that…"

Hiei gave Yusuke a long, scrutinising look before continuing.

"As a child, all manners of demons tried to kidnap or kill me for my hiruiseki," he said. "The first to succeed was a crazy woman who kidnapped me from the bandits I was raised by when I was an infant. I don't remember very much about it, but I was told that she was bald, dressed in unusual clothing and she spoke nonsense. I often wondered if she really was my own mother, gone mad and come to look for me. Because the ice maidens never leave their village, they dress in very dated fashions, so the description of her wearing unusual clothing seemed to fit. All I can remember about the whole thing was that she was terrified the whole time I was with her."

"No wonder!" Yusuke laughed. "I bet you were a violent baby too!"

"But it wasn't me that she was afraid of," Hiei corrected him. "It was something else."

* * *

"Oh man, I can't believe it's raining again!" Kuwabara moaned.

"I did have a lovely umbrella, but I'm afraid I lost it," Botan replied. "Lord Koenma gave it to me, it was white and just the right size for sharing."

Botan frowned slightly as she caught Kuwabara giving her a funny look.

"I don't think you're ever gonna see that umbrella again, Botan," he said.

"Probably not," she agreed. "I lost it near a small river, it probably got carried away in the water."

Kuwabara snorted in amusement, but Botan failed to see what was so funny.

"Never mind," she said with a shrug. "We'll dig a little longer and then stop for a bit until the rain lets up."

"I was thinking maybe we should stop for today," Kuwabara replied. "It's not like we need to find it right now, right?"

Botan hesitated, again at war with herself. Kuwabara was of course right: they did not need to find the device immediately, but she wanted to find it before sundown because she had decided that what she was going to do with it was going to be the best Valentine's Day gift ever for Hiei.

"We should keep digging for now," she said, driving the blade of her oar into the ground again.

"Okay," Kuwabara agreed.

They dug in silence until the rain became heavier and the ground around them began to become waterlogged, at which point both stopped working.

"This is hopeless, Botan!" Kuwabara shouted, the noise of the rain forcing him to raise his voice to be heard.

"But we were so close, I was sure of it!" Botan shouted back.

"We have to stop!"

Botan sighed, wiping a muddy face over her face to clear the water, but doing little more than smearing her face with dirt. She did not want to give up, but she was starting to think that Kuwabara was right. She had been thinking a lot about The Stolen Moment whilst digging, and it had occurred to her that it was fate that she had been sent to recover and destroy it. Surely the fact that she was sent to collect it the day before Valentine's Day was a sign of something, she told herself, and surely the device had the power to bring Hiei the one thing he seemed to be lacking in his life: happiness. He seemed unable to forget or let go of his painful past, so maybe the only way for him to find that happiness was for her to rewrite his past and create some memories that would make him smile.

Just then, Botan saw something behind Kuwabara. A small irregularity in the ground behind his head. They were standing deep in a trench they had excavated, walls of mud all around them, and although most of it looked the same, there was something slightly different behind Kuwabara. Botan took a step towards him, reaching her hand over his shoulder.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, turning his head to watch her hand pass his shoulder.

"Look Kuwabara," she said. "I think we've found it."

Kuwabara turned fully around, clawing at the dirt a little. When he stopped, he had revealed a long thin object almost as brown as the mud itself, decorated with gold swirls and characters.

"I think we did find it, Botan," he said incredulously. "I don't wanna touch it though, Koenma said the power of it might corrupt even me."

"You should get out of here," Botan said, stepping past him to approach the artefact. "Get as far away from here as you can. I have to blow it up."

"Right," Kuwabara agreed.

He hoisted himself up the walls of the hole and back up to the field above them. He hesitated by the edge of the hole, peering down at Botan in concern.

"Will you be alright?" he asked. "Should I stay nearby in case you get hurt when you detonate it?"

Botan looked up at him and smiled, though it was not her usual, careful and cheerful smile.

"Run as far away from here as you can Kuwabara," she said. "And if I don't ever see you again, let me take this opportunity to say that it has always been a pleasure working with you and you have been a most wonderful friend."

"Hey Botan, don't talk like that," he said, his face creasing in concern. "You're gonna be okay. It can't kill you, you're already dead, right?"

Botan smiled again, and again it was a darker smile than she usually wore.

"I've never been alive to die, Kuwabara," she said.

"But you've got a human body here in this world, so that makes you alive!" he argued.

Botan shook her head, her by now soaked ponytail slapping against her shoulders.

"My body may be alive, but my soul is not," she said. "Now get out of here before you get hurt."

Kuwabara nodded, though his furrowed brow suggested that he still disagreed with her words. He backed away from the hole until he was out of Botan's line of sight, at which point she gently eased her fingers into the dirt, touching The Stolen Moment for the first time. She smiled as she felt it cool against her skin. She hoped the fuse would still light in the pouring rain – how ironic if it would not, she thought.

She carefully pulled The Stolen Moment free and wiped the excess dirt from it with her fingertips before cradling it in her hands and taking a moment to admire it. It looked just like the sketch she had drawn in her notebook, down to the last detail. It was a lot smaller than she had imagined it to be: it was proportionately longer and thinner than she had expected too. It was hard to imagine that something so small, so seemingly insignificant, would be so powerful and have such an impact of the lives of so many.

Botan was still not sure that she had the right to use it, but she knew that as soon as she lit the fuse, she would be unable to stop her mind from making the wish she had been thinking of: she could only hope that it was the best thing for all concerned.

* * *

"She was afraid of something else?" Yusuke asked. "Like what?"

"I don't know!" Hiei snapped irritably. "And nor do I care. She was a greedy fool, probably only after my hiruiseki."

"Maybe not," Kurama said. "I have a theory, but I'm not sure I want to voice it just yet."

"Oh come on, Kurama!" Yusuke moaned. "We've wasted the last week chasing after a bunch of weak D-Class wannabes, and for what? A missing spirit world artefact that we still haven't found? This blows."

"This could be far more serious than you are allowing for," Kurama said firmly. "We must find that artefact ourselves and destroy it. I have a terrible feeling that if we do not act quickly, we may be too late to prevent something terrible from occurring."

"If you're not going to be specific, then don't bother talking at all!" Hiei snapped.

"Yeah, this is starting to piss me off," Yusuke muttered, fumbling in his pockets. "I'm gonna give that toddler bitch a piece of my mind."

Yusuke produced his communicator and called Koenma, who duly appeared before him.

"Ah, Yusuke!" the young prince greeted him. "Glad to hear from you. How are things?"

"Not good," Yusuke sharply replied. "What were you thinking wasting our time sending us in here to catch a group of weak, low-class demons?"

"I had to be sure anyone with knowledge of The Stolen Moment was swiftly eradicated," Koenma calmly replied. "If you've taken care of that side of things then this mission is almost complete."

"Almost?" Yusuke echoed, tensing in preparation of hearing something that was going to push his anger over the edge.

"Yes, almost," Koenma confirmed. "As we speak, I have a top team searching for The Stolen Moment, and they must be close to finding it by now. They are under strict instructions to destroy it as soon as they find it."

"A "top team"?" Yusuke said dryly. "Shouldn't you have done that right at the start of this investigation? And who exactly is your "top team" anyway?"

"Kuwabara and Botan, of course."

"Kuwabara and Botan! Are you out of your mind? Kuwabara can't be trusted with a time travel device! He'll use it and kill us all!"

"You're lack of faith is disappointing, Yusuke."

"Seriously Koenma, that idiot will use it! He'll probably ask to go back in time to stop Tarukane from abducting Yukina, thinking that he's doing a good thing, but actually totally screwing up everything!"

Yusuke yelped as his communicator broke apart in his hand with a blast of air. He looked up to see the top half of the communicator sparking on the ground and Hiei slowly bringing his sword around.

"My sister suffered greatly because of that bastard," he growled, pointing the tip of his sword at Yusuke's nose. "Who are you to say that she should not be allowed to have that horrible memory taken from her life?"

Yusuke sighed, dropping the lower half of his communicator and taking hold of Hiei's blade between his thumb and forefinger, pushing it downwards.

"Because, Hiei, it would change everything that happened from that moment onwards," he said as calmly as he could manage. "If he doesn't kidnap Yukina, Tarukane won't have to hire the Toguro Brothers to stop anyone from rescuing her, I won't have to fight them because I'll never go there in the first place, Toguro won't ever know who I am, we won't ever train for the dark tournament because we won't be made to fight in it, we won't get stronger like we had to, Toguro will kill Genkai and I won't be able to finish him, Kurama won't become Youko, you won't master the dragon and when Sensui shows up, we'll all die before we even get close to him."

Hiei lowered his sword.

"Don't you get it?" Yusuke continued. "Time travel is a major thing. Nobody just goes back in time and makes good things happen, stopping bad memories, no matter how good their intentions are. If even one slight thing is changed in the past, we'll all be living in a totally different future."

"Yusuke is quite correct, Hiei," Kurama added. "That device is more powerful than we give it credit for, largely because of the implications of its use. One seemingly well-meaning gesture of somebody travelling back to time to stop something bad from happening will inevitably create infinite chaos. We must get to Kuwabara, and destroy the device ourselves. Alone the temptation to abuse its powers will be too much to overcome, but as a group we can work together to prevent a disaster."

"Right," Yusuke agreed. "And if Hiei hadn't just sliced my communicator apart, I could have called Koenma to ask where Kuwabara and Botan are right now."

"Hn, fool," Hiei said with a smirk. "We have a spare."

He produced the communicator he had taken from Kuwabara, tossing it over to Yusuke,

"Alright!" Yusuke said. "Let's get this sorted and end this whole joke so that we can all go back to our normal lives!"

Yusuke called up Koenma again, smiling nervously as he saw his former boss glaring at him.

"Was that another one of my communicators getting destroyed?" he demanded.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Yusuke replied. "Can you tell us exactly where Kuwabara is?"

"Certainly. He's at the portal in the south where we discovered clear evidence of missing people."

Yusuke looked up at Hiei.

"That's not far from here," he confirmed.

Yusuke snapped the communicator shut without bothering to end his conversation with Koenma.

"Then what are we waiting for?" he said. "Let's get this thing before Kuwabara does something stupid that we all regret!"

Kurama and Hiei nodded their agreement, and all three started off towards the stairs.

* * *

"Sir, I've had a thought," Ayame said, approaching Koenma's desk.

"What is it, Ayame?" he asked her.

"It's about the illustration that was recovered from demon world," she replied.

"This one?"

Koenma picked up the page from his desk and Ayame nodded.

"It's quite a specific size and shape, Sir," she said, reaching a hand up her sleeve. "Actually, it's this specific size and shape."

She pulled a notebook from the sleeve of her kimono, opening it out and placing it down on Koenma's desk. He leaned forwards, laying the paper in his hand over a page of the book.

"It's exactly the same size and shape!" he remarked. "And with this ragged edge, it looks like it could have been torn from this very book!"

"This is a ferry girl notebook, Sir," Ayame said, closing the book to show him the cover.

"What are you saying, Ayame?" Koenma asked.

"I'm saying that the page in your hand was taken from the notebook of a ferry girl."

"But how could that be? And how did it end up in demon world?"

"I don't know Sir."

"That could only mean two things: either a demon stole it from one of my ferry girls or one of my ferry girls went to demon world."

"As far as I know, Lord Koenma, only one of your ferry girls has ever gone to demon world. And from what I can tell, she's been there more than once."

Koenma's face dropped so suddenly he almost lost his grip on his pacifier.

"Are you saying that this sketch belongs to Botan?" he asked.

* * *

Looking up at the sky, Botan could not see a single break in the clouds. She was not sure how the fuse would burn in such wet conditions, but she was growing so apprehensive she knew that she could not wait for a change in weather. With trembling hands she pulled a box of matches from her pocket and struck one, bringing it towards the fuse of The Stolen Moment. The flame hissed and sizzled against the rain, fading to a dull blue and threatening to die altogether. Eventually the fuse took light with a burst of green sparks, so bright, hot and sudden, Botan dropped the match in her surprise.

Botan stared at the glowing green flame, shooting out sparks and burning intensely in spite of the dampness of the fuse itself and the rain falling relentlessly onto it. In her shock she almost forgot that the brilliant light marked the start of her limited time to make her decision, and as she tried to remember the finer details of her plan, her mind went blank. The fuse was half burned out already.

"Oh dear…" she muttered.

Maybe it would not be so bad to just let it burn out, she thought. That was what she was meant to be doing after all. She guessed she had about two seconds left before The Stolen Moment detonated.

"Take me back exactly ninety-nine years to this day!" she cried out.

Botan felt The Stolen Moment vibrate in her hand for just a moment before it disintegrated with a bang and a cloud of smoke enveloped her.

"Botan!" Kuwabara cried, charging towards the hole.

He threw himself into the ditch, landing in an awkward crouch, his feet landing in Botan's footprints. The rain that fell around him was grey with ash, and both Botan and The Stolen Moment were gone.

"Botan!" he screamed desperately. "Botan, where are you?"

He turned on the spot in vain, but still found no sign of her. With a sickening feeling consuming him, Kuwabara came to the reluctant conclusion that something had gone terribly wrong. If Botan had not made a wish, The Stolen Moment should have blown up without affecting her in any way. If she had made a wish, she ought to have returned already, since the principle of the device was that it would send the user back in time for one hour and then bring them forward again to the point in time immediately after the wish was made; yet Botan was nowhere to be seen.

Either her wish had created a new reality where Botan no longer existed, or she had somehow died during its destruction.

"Botan!" Kuwabara cried, dropping to his knees and clawing at the earth. "You can't disappear, I can still remember you!"

He punched at the mud and cried out in frustration. He needed help, and fast. He began searching for his communicator to call Koenma or Yusuke, his eyes clouding over as he remembered that the arrogant little fire demon had it.

"Damn you, Hiei!" he roared.

Kuwabara leapt out of the ditch with inhuman agility and launched himself into a sprint, tearing down the hillside as fast as his legs would allow.

* * *

"Botan!" Yusuke yelled. "Come in, damn it!"

Yusuke shook Kuwabara's communicator angrily.

"She's not answering!" he said.

"Call Koenma," Kurama suggested.

"Don't involve that idiot yet," Hiei argued.

"This isn't funny!" Yusuke cried, his voice breaking a little in his desperation. "We could all vanish from existence at any second! Damn it Hiei, why did you take Kuwabara's communicator from him?"

"I had a need for it," Hiei replied.

"Do you even know how these things work?"

"Hn."

"Damn it!"

Yusuke pushed himself harder and Kurama struggled to match his increased speed. Hiei kept up with ease, but had to admit that even he was impressed with the effort Yusuke was putting in.

"I've overcome too much crap to die like this," Yusuke told them. "Some stupid time paradox isn't going to be the death of Yusuke Urameshi!"

"That's the spirit!" Kurama said with a smile.

"What's the matter old man?" Yusuke asked him with a grin. "Too fast for you?"

"Never," Kurama replied; though inwardly he was hoping that Yusuke did not run any faster.

"Probably like moving in slow motion for Hiei," Yusuke joked. "Right Hiei? You never stand still for long, huh?"

"Stop!" Hiei bellowed.

Yusuke struggled to slow himself to a halt, almost tripping over his own feet. Kurama managed to stop beside him with only a little more grace, and both turned to look back at Hiei, who had somehow managed to stop several metres behind them. He looked unusually small and unsure of himself, his appearance only making Yusuke and Kurama worry all the more about why he had halted their progress.

"It's here, I can feel it," they heard Hiei faintly say.

He was standing with his legs astride, his head tilted back and his eyes rolled up towards the sky.

"Up there, it's close," he said.

Yusuke looked up at the sky, searching it for any signs of anything unusual. When he found nothing of the sort he turned to Kurama who shook his head to indicate that he too was confused.

"What are you talking about, Hiei?" Yusuke called over to Hiei. "We don't see anything. There's nothing up there but a bunch of clouds."

"That's it, the clouds," Hiei replied. "They're just an illusion to hide it."

Hiei held out his unbandaged hand, his head lowering to watch as something almost invisible floated into the centre of his palm. Kurama copied his action, and both he and Yusuke gasped as a single snowflake landed on the underside of Kurama's middle finger.

"It's snowing?" Yusuke asked, looking up at the sky incredulously.

"It's a defence mechanism," Kurama replied. "We're close to the ice village, the elders there have conjured a snow storm to keep us at bay."

Hiei marched up to join them, his face once more devoid of feeling.

"Let's keep moving," he said. "I don't like the idea of that apish moron gaining possession of The Stolen Moment."

"But Hiei…" Yusuke began, caught between looking at Hiei's blank expression and the steadily increasing number of snowflakes falling onto his own skin. "Isn't this…?"

"We have no business in the ice village, Yusuke," Kurama said. "Hiei is right: it is far more pressing that we continue and return to the living world."

Yusuke slowly nodded, giving Hiei one last questioning look.

"Hn, enough with the dramatics, detective," Hiei said with a smirk. "I have nothing to say to those hags, and there is nothing any of them could possibly have to say to me. The fox is right, we should keep moving."

"Right," Yusuke agreed.

Kurama started to comment on the possibility of taking a slightly longer route to avoid passing under the ice village, but his voice failed him as a blood-curdling scream resounded above their heads. All three looked up with a start, searching the clouds desperately for the source of the agonising cry. When it came again Yusuke's face twisted.

"It sounds like somebody's dying up there!" he said. "Where is it coming from?"

"I can't tell," Kurama replied. "The clouds and the approaching storm are producing interference, it would be impossible to pinpoint the exact origin."

The voice cried out again, even more desperate than before, this time clearly crying out one word.

"No!"

"Somebody is dying up there, I'm sure of it!" Yusuke yelled, clenching his fists.

"And what do you intend to do about it from down here?" Hiei asked. "It's not our concern, we should move on."

"What if it's one of your relatives, Hiei?" Yusuke demanded. "It sounds like a woman!"

"I wouldn't care even if it was," Hiei flatly replied. "Though clearly you know nothing of the ice maidens. They are incapable of emotion, they would never scream like that. That is a voice expressing extreme mental anguish."

"Could you not use your jagan to find the source?" Kurama asked.

"I could," he replied. "If I cared. But I don't, so I won't."

"You little bastard, Hiei!" Yusuke cursed him.

The voice cried again, and all three froze on the spot, their eyes wide like dinner plates.

"Hiei!" it screamed.

Yusuke and Kurama slowly moved their eyes to Hiei, who looked every bit as startled as they felt.

"Hiei, no! Please, no!"

They heard another anguished cry mixed with sobbing before the air became oddly still and silent, the snow by then falling steadily around them.

"Shit…" Yusuke muttered, giving a small shiver.

"Maybe you want to reconsider using your jagan, Hiei," Kurama said. "Whoever that is seems to know you."

Hiei opened his mouth but said nothing, his face still uncharacteristically twisted in horror.

"I don't think you're gonna need to use your third eye," Yusuke said, his face creasing and his body tensing. "Deadweight at one o'clock."

Yusuke pointed over Hiei's shoulder, and both Hiei and Kurama turned to watch as a dark shape fell through the air. Against the blur of the flurry of snow the only thing that could clearly be seen was that it was a limp body of general humanoid shape. After a delay of shock, all three took off towards the falling body, Hiei arriving by it an instant after it smacked hard against the ground. Kurama and Yusuke shortly arrived either side of him, and all three frowned down curiously at the shapeless, snow-covered mass below them.

"What the hell is this?" Yusuke whispered, crouching down and wiping aside the snow. "It's like somebody just fell out of the sky, how is that even possible?"

"Perhaps she was cast out of the ice village," Kurama suggested, crouching down and grabbing a handful of snow-soaked material and lifting it upwards.

Yusuke cursed as he saw the underside of the arm Kurama was lifting, seeing the sleeve was tattered and bloody. Kurama leaned forwards before recoiling back, standing up and staggering back a step, one hand clamping over his mouth and nose.

"Wh-what is it?" Yusuke asked, withdrawing his hands cautiously.

"The smell…" Kurama replied in a choked voice. "It's… overpowering…"

Yusuke slowly lifted his hands to his nose and sniffed.

"Aw!" he cried out, falling back onto his backside with a thump. "She stinks like a urinal! Did she piss herself before they threw her down here?"

Hiei slowly knelt down on the ground, tensing a little as the odour of urine the others had mentioned reached his delicate nasal passages. Ignoring it as best he could he reached both hands towards one end of pile in front of himself, gripping two handfuls of cold and wet soft fabric. As he pulled and lifted the folds apart he focused some of his energy into his hands, warming the fabric and melting the snow, revealing more bloodstains and a deathly pale face.

Hiei snatched his hands back as though he had been stung, glaring at the face he had uncovered in horrified disbelief.

"Oh dear, it is just as I feared," Kurama gasped.

"What is it?" Yusuke asked Kurama.

When Kurama did not answer him, Yusuke grabbed Hiei's shoulder and pushed him back to lean over the body and see what the other two were so transfixed by. At first all he saw was the pale face of a woman who looked dead to the world, a nasty wound over one side of her nose, mouth and cheek. Then he noticed the delicate pale blue eyebrows and the sickeningly familiar heart-shaped face.

"Oh shit, it's Botan!" he wailed.

* * *

Botan coughed and spluttered, waving her hands about at the clouds of smoke around her. They took far too long to dissipate, and when they eventually did, they left her feeling completely confused. She must have spoken her wish too late, she concluded, since she was still on the same hillside by the same old farm.

But it was no longer raining and she was standing on ground level, the hole she and Kuwabara had spent so long digging vanished.

Botan slowly turned around on the spot, taking in her surroundings. Everything looked the same, but there were a few minor differences. First of all, there were people standing by the farmhouse, all watching her in awe. Studying them a little longer she noticed that they were dressed in clothes that she had not seen humans in the living world wear for many years. She hissed as her left palm burned by the point where The Stolen Moment had exploded against her skin. She turned her hand over to inspect the damage, frowning curiously as she saw a distinct mark there.

Botan slowly lifted up her hand, her thumb pointing towards the sky and her fingers below. Looking at her palm side on like that, the burn on her hand appeared to form a pattern.

"09," she read aloud. "How peculiar indeed…"

Botan lowered her hand again and looked across at the family by the farmhouse, the sight of their agape faces reminding her of Kuwabara.

"Ooh, Kuwabara!" she gasped, looking about herself again. "Kuwabara! It's safe to come out now! I destroyed The Stolen Moment!"

Botan turned three times on the spot, making herself dizzy.

"Kuwabara?" she muttered, a small frown tugging at her features.

He must have run off in his panic at the explosion, she decided: though that did seem unlike him. Botan shrugged off the thought and jogged over to the family by the farmhouse, her eyes growing wide as the father of the family ushered his wife and children indoors in a panic at her approach.

"Oh no, it's alright!" she called out to them. "I mean no harm! I just wondered if perhaps you had seen my friend Kuwabara?"

"I don't know what sort of demon you are, but you better keep your distance!" the man warned, raising a pitchfork.

"Oh my…" Botan muttered, stopping abruptly.

She slowly eyed the man over, again struck by his dated clothing. She looked at herself, in the pink velour tracksuit she had acquired specifically for the task of hiking up the hill in search of The Stolen Moment, deciding that she probably did look odd in such an outfit compared to what the farmer was wearing.

"Please Sir, I'm just a lost little kitty!" she implored, pulling her very best cat face.

"Demon begone!" he hollered, throwing something at her.

"Ah!" she yelped as something slapped her in the face.

She grabbed awkwardly at the object as it fell from her face and fanned out over her arms. Opening her eyes again she saw that it was a newspaper, but it was unlike any newspaper she was accustomed to seeing Kuwabara or Kurama reading. She carefully shuffled the pages back into order to study the front page, frowning at the headline.

"Well that hardly makes sense," she muttered.

Her eyes trailed up from the bold headline, locking onto a small line of text above it. The date on the paper was unmistakeable, and the newspaper was in far too pristine condition to genuinely be that old: apparently The Stolen Moment had worked, it had sent her back in time.

"Oh goodness, no!" she gasped. "This isn't right! I did ask to go back 99 years, but this is not the right place! I'm still in the same place I was in when I made the wish! Wait… It only transports through time, not distance or dimensions! I'll have to travel there myself!"

Botan threw down the newspaper and smacked a fist into her open palm.

"Owie!" she complained, shaking off her burned palm.

She held it up again, gasping as she saw that the burn had changed shape.

""bS"," she read. "What does that mean?"

She frowned at the symbols, but still they looked like a lower case letter "b" and an upper case letter "S".

Botan slowly twisted her hand around until her thumb was nearest the ground and her little finger nearest the sky.

"59," she read again. "Ooh, 59! And it didn't say 09 before, it said 60! It's a timer! This is how many minutes I have left before I go back to the future!"

Botan smiled at her own ingenuity before turning blue with fear as she realised the implications of what she had discovered.

"I only have 60 minutes in the past, and I've wasted my first minute already!"

She hurriedly summoned her oar and flung herself onto it, rocketing into the sky towards the portal to demon world.

"I probably should have planned this a little better," she muttered to herself as the wind whipped her wet ponytail about behind her. "I don't even know where I'm going, I just hope I can find her before my time is up."

Botan checked her hand again, relieved that it still read 59, before pushing on faster and disappearing from the living world through the portal to demon world.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan has gone back in time and is on a mission to change the past. Meanwhile, in the present day, tensions are high as it appears that something terrible has happened to Botan. **Chapter 14: The Stolen Moment**.


	14. The Stolen Moment

**Are you sitting comfortably…?**

This is a monstrous long saga of a chapter (about 10K words), but I didn't feel that splitting it out was right, since the events are all written in a specific order, intended to be read together for enjoyment of the irony. Rating increase to cover necessary bad language and violence.

The "timer" on Botan's hand is my nod to "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" – my all time favourite anime movie.

 **Recap:** Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei killed the bandits in demon world, Botan and Kuwabara found The Stolen Moment, and (despite good intentions being exactly the wrong reason to time travel) Botan made what she thought was a good wish, sending herself back in time 99 years, but somehow she returned to the present day in demon world outside of the ice village. And now we found out why…

* * *

 **Chapter 14: The Stolen Moment**

Kuwabara staggered into the hotel he and the others had been staying at, almost falling across the reception desk, his chest heaving and his breath rasping. He was dripping sweat and rainwater, but he was beyond caring, even when he saw his own reflection in the mirrored wall at the back of the reception desk that showed his face was beet red and his hair was dark orange and plastered down over his face he did falter.

"I need to use your phone," he wheezed, fumbling over the desk at the receptionist's phone.

"Excuse me?" she echoed. "You can't just come in here like that!"

"Emergency," he said, pushing back his hair with one hand and grabbing up the receiver with the other.

He dialled with a shaking finger, mutter impatiently to himself as he waited for an answer.

"Hello?" a voice eventually spoke to him.

"Yukina!" he blurted out.

"Oh, Kazuma!" she replied. "Are you alright?"

"Yukina, you need to… Get Ayame to… Call Yusuke," he said through ragged, wheezing breaths.

"Kazuma, you sound awful!" Yukina said, sounding tearful. "What's happened to you?"

"No time to explain," he said. "Please Yukina my love… Get Ayame."

"Ayame's not here right now."

Kuwabara mouthed out a curse.

"Get Keiko to call Yusuke! Call Yusuke!"

"Why, what's wrong?"

"It's Botan. The Stolen Moment made her disappear and she didn't come back."

Yukina was quiet for a long time before eventually answering.

"We have to find her," she said. "I'll get Keiko."

"Good luck."

Kuwabara hung up the telephone and staggered back from the reception desk before the security guard reached him.

"Damn it I hope it's not too late," he muttered as he shouldered his way out of the front door.

* * *

"It seems logical that the sketch is hers, Sir," Ayame said.

"Botan?" Koenma echoed. "Are you sure? I mean, Botan? My Botan?"

"Your Botan, Sir?"

"Botan is my best ferry girl!"

Ayame's face dropped.

"You're good too Ayame, but Botan is the kindest and most honest girl I have in my employ!" Koenma said impatiently. "I don't believe for one minute that she would do something as stupid as inform demon world about something like this! Botan is, in every sense of the word, an angel!"

Ayame gave a small shrug.

"It's just a possibility, Sir," she said.

"No it is not, Ayame, you hear me?" he yelled back. "Don't ever let me hear you talking about Botan like that again!"

The two stared at each other in determination, the moment only ending when a red light on the television screen in front of Koenma's desk began flashing.

"Come in!" he snapped irritably.

The television screen flickered to life and an image of Yusuke's head and shoulders appeared. His hair was white with snow and his skin red, but his eyes were wide and watery, his mouth hanging open, breathing out small clouds of steam against the cold around him.

"Yusuke?" Koenma asked. "You look terrible, where are you?"

"Koenma it's…" Yusuke began, before shaking his head a little. "We didn't know, she just… She fell out of the sky and… She's dead."

"What?" Koenma echoed. "What are you talking about, Yusuke?"

Yusuke's mouth moved around a little but no sound came out. Koenma could hear desperate voices behind him, his concern only rising when he realised that one of them was Kurama's.

"She's dead," Yusuke whispered.

Koenma held his breath as Yusuke moved the communicator away from his face, the television screen filling up with the image of a lifeless female body lying between Kurama and Hiei.

"Come on Botan, stay with us," Kurama said, his voice tense and urgent as he pushed at her chest.

"Are you doing it right?" Hiei snapped at him.

"She's not responding, I'm doing all I can," Kurama snapped back.

Koenma sat back hard against his chair, his pacifier falling from his lips.

"Koenma, you have to help us out," Yusuke's voice said, the screen panning away from the terrible scene unfolding and back to Yusuke's face. "Can you send Ayame here? We need to get her back to spirit world. She'll be alright if we can get her back, right?"

Koenma moved his eyes to Ayame.

"Tell him to meet me in the living world," she said.

Koenma started to argue but Yusuke interrupted him.

"We'll get her through the nearest portal, we'll be at the site in the south where all this crap started," he said. "Just make sure there's somebody there to take Botan back to spirit world."

Koenma nodded numbly and Ayame ran out of the office.

* * *

"Oh dear, this is no good at all!" Botan muttered as she lowered herself to the ground.

She checked her hand again: 51 minutes left.

"Excuse me?" she said, approaching a nearby female demon. "Could you tell me where the ice village is?"

"What?" the demon echoed.

"You know, the home of the ice maidens?" Botan pressed.

"Get away from me, you crazy bitch!" the demon snapped, before marching off.

"Well that was very unfriendly of you, young lady!" Botan scolded her.

Botan gasped as the demon flicked her middle finger in the air.

"Such awfully bad manners!" Botan muttered to herself.

She sighed and checked her hand again: 50 minutes left.

A sudden wind swept past her, dropping the temperature of the air so drastically Botan began to shiver. She grabbed the hood of her velour tracksuit and pulled it up over her head, pulling the drawstrings tight until only her eyes, nose and mouth were visible. She looked about for the source of the sudden cold, seeing nothing at first. She heard a male demon call out something sickeningly suggestive before screaming out in pain. She turned to see a heavily built troll in a loincloth turn to ice in a matter of seconds. His friends scurried off and a single figure walked past the frozen troll, head held high, hands concealed inside the sleeves of a kimono by her waist.

"Oh my goodness!" Botan cried, her voice muffled by her hood. "Yukina!"

Botan watched, wide-eyed, as petite Yukina strolled by, her back rigidly straight and her face set in a determined scowl that looked entirely out of place. It was clearly Yukina though: she was wearing the same kimono, she had the same aqua-blue hair, the same small and neat figure, the same spiked red ties around her hair, the same delicate features and porcelain skin, all of which made her look like a precious and priceless doll.

"Yukina!" Botan yelled, her voice still muffled by her hood, but loud enough to reach the ice maiden.

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head towards Botan, her eyes narrowed into an accusing glare that made her look alarmingly like Hiei.

"Yukina, what are you doing here in the past?" Botan yelled. "Oh wait…" she muttered to herself. "Maybe the time travel spell wore off when I entered demon world!"

Botan checked her hand again to be sure: 49 minutes left.

"Who are you?" Yukina called over to her.

"It's me, Botan!" Botan replied, pointing at her semi-concealed face, which was currently cat-shaped. "I didn't know you could travel through time too!"

"Leave me be, you frightful abomination!"

Botan gasped in horror, but Yukina turned her head and walked on.

"Yukina!" Botan yelled, hurrying after her. "Wait, Yukina!"

Botan touched a hand to Yukina's shoulder, screaming out as she suffered an ice-burn: now both her hands hurt, one from heat and one from cold.

"My name is not Yukina, you are mistaken," Yukina spat at her.

"But you look just like…" Botan began slowly. "Wait… You must be Yukina's mother!"

The ice maiden's stern face flickered a little.

"Bingo!" Botan said cheerfully. "You are Yukina's mother! How wonderful, I came here to find you! And with… 48 minutes to spare! I need to talk to you about Hiei!"

"Hiei?" she echoed. "I've never heard that name. I'll admit, I do have a young daughter called Yukina, though how you know of that is beyond me."

"Yes, well I know all about Yukina. And since this is 99 years in the past, she must be… Just a few months old, right?"

"My daughter is more than a year old. Now leave me alone or I will do to you what I did to that filthy troll."

"Over a year–"

Botan stopped abruptly as the ice maiden's eyes glowed white.

"Can you at least tell me your name?" she asked sweetly. "My name is Botan."

"What's in a name?" she scoffed.

She turned and started to walk off, leaving Botan deflated: and with 47 minutes to go.

"It's Hina."

Botan broke into a huge grin as she watched Hina walk away.

"But I am not looking for a friend, so I don't expect to see you again."

"Well," Botan muttered. "The apple certainly didn't fall far from the tree, did it? If only Hiei knew…"

Botan paused, thinking over her options. She eventually decided to follow Hina, since it was unusual to find her away from the ice village after Yukina and Hiei had already been born. She was also a little confused: she had specifically asked to go back in time 99 years because that had seemed logical, yet nothing seemed to be adding up. In the time she had come from, Yukina was 100 and newly pregnant, and as far as Botan was aware, a pregnancy lasted nine months. Since the ice maidens conceived at 100 years of age, Botan had assumed that going back 99 years would take her to the point when Hina was 101 years old and Yukina and Hiei would be just three months: yet Hina had said that Yukina was already more than a year old. She wanted to find out why that was, and decided that following Hina was her best option.

She wondered where they would end up. As Hina took a sharp turn and entered a club, Botan hesitated. The signs above the doors were adorned with pictures of semi-naked women: what sort of place was this, and why was Hiei and Yukina's mother going there?

* * *

"Damn it, Kurama!" Hiei cursed.

Kurama ignored Hiei's outburst, keeping his ear pressed to Botan's chest.

"What's happening?" Yusuke asked, closing his communicator and dropping down beside Kurama. "Is she breathing?"

"Her heart is beating now, but she's barely breathing," Kurama concluded, lifting his head.

"You're not trying hard enough!" Hiei snarled. "Move out of the way!"

Hiei grabbed at Botan's clothes and lowered his mouth towards hers, his lips stopping just millimetres short of their goal as Kurama grabbed a handful of his hair to halt his actions.

"Hiei, please," he said, trying to sound as calm as he usually did. "You are too aggressive, you'll do more damage than good."

Hiei lifted his head sharply, leaving Kurama's hand hovering in the air above Botan, several strands of black hair lodged between his fingers.

"Fuck you!" he spat out.

Kurama sighed.

"I'll pick her up," Yusuke said to Kurama. "You did well to get her heart beating, but now we need to get her back to the living world. Ayame should be there, she'll take Botan back to spirit world."

Kurama nodded and Yusuke started to reach for Botan.

"Stop!" Hiei snapped.

Yusuke paused, his hands hovering above Botan.

"You can't just…" Hiei muttered, his eyes looking away from them for a moment. "She's so cold."

He reached his unbandaged hand towards her face, his fingers shaking all the way. Yusuke glanced at Kurama, who was too busy staring to Hiei to notice. As Hiei's fingers neared Botan he curled them around and dragged his knuckles down the uninjured side of her face.

"She's so cold," he said again.

"So let's get her out of this cold place," Yusuke suggested.

"I'll carry her," Hiei said.

Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"Let me carry her, she's my assistant," he said.

Hiei's head snapped around and he glared at Yusuke.

"And she's my friend," Yusuke added. "And she's quite tall, your arms are–"

Yusuke abruptly stopped himself from saying "your arms are too short to carry her", quickly covering his blunder with a smile.

"What?" Hiei asked quietly.

"You're so fast, it would be better if you ran ahead and made sure that Ayame is ready for us," Yusuke offered.

"You're right, I am the fastest one here," Hiei replied. "Which is why I should carry her. In the time you've wasted arguing this with me, I could have taken her all the way to spirit world and back."

"Hiei–"

"But you don't trust me to touch her."

Yusuke's face dropped.

"What?" he yelped. "That's not it! That's not it at all!"

"Yes it is!" Hiei snapped bitterly. "You were about to say that my arms are too dangerous to take her in them!"

Hiei roughly pulled off his coat and threw it down into the snow.

"It's because of this, isn't it?" he asked, ripping off the bandages around his right arm. "You don't think that I have complete control over the dragon?"

Hiei clawed his hand in the air, the black dragon encircling his arm twisting with every twitch of his muscles. Yusuke narrowed his eyes slightly as he noticed that Hiei had positioned his arm in such a way that the gaping jaw of the dragon was pointing towards Botan's throat – an accidental coincidence he was sure.

"Hn, you're probably right to be afraid," Hiei said, smirking darkly. "Those hags said it best," he added, jerking a thumb up towards the cloudy sky. "I am the forbidden child, who will destroy everything he touches in a blazing inferno."

He grabbed up his coat and stood up to pull it back on. Yusuke turned to Kurama, who looked concerned.

"We don't have time for this right now," he said quietly. "Pick her up, Yusuke."

Yusuke nodded, gathering Botan into his arms and rising to his feet. She moulded limply in his hold, one arm folded across her chest, the other hanging down at her side. Her head hung back as though it was too heavy for her body, her position making her look all the more pitiful.

"Hiei, will you go ahead and check for Ayame?" Kurama asked.

"Fine," Hiei grunted.

Yusuke watched Hiei dart off before turning to Kurama.

"What the hell was all that about?" he asked.

Kurama shook his head and together they started after Hiei.

"Kuwabara said there was something going on between Hiei and Botan, but I thought he was just… Being Kuwabara," Yusuke said.

"You know Hiei," Kurama replied. "He is a very complex character, and he shows his friendship in the most unusual ways. I can only imagine how he would express himself towards somebody he loved."

"Yeah, he's pretty repressed around Yukina," Yusuke agreed. "But I don't get why he would like Botan. He never liked her before, and she's not exactly his type. Apart from anything else, he's a demon and she's practically an angel!"

Kurama nodded but said no more.

"Yeah, that's pretty complex alright," Yusuke muttered.

* * *

Botan decided to keep her hood up as she walked deeper into the throngs of demons. Ahead of her Hina was approaching the bar, but Botan was struggling to keep her attention away from the stage to her right: a pair of twin female cat demons were doing things she had not thought physically possible, much to the delight of the mostly male audience in attendance. This must be one of those strip clubs she had heard of, and although she was interested to see just what they were all about, Botan was mostly curious about why an ice maiden would willingly leave the ice village to come to such a crowded place.

Botan checked her hand: 44 minutes to go.

Botan gulped noisily. She did not like the sight of the number 4 appearing on any part of her body, but seeing it twice on the palm of her hand made her positively nauseous. After all, 4 was the number of death, and surely a bad omen.

Botan shrieked into her hood as a heavy hand gripped her shoulder and pushed her to one side. She staggered under the pressure but managed to avoid colliding with anything, quickly righting her balance and glancing about for the source of the action. She eventually located a dark-haired male demon walking away from her, pushing his way past others the way he had her. Botan felt something inside of her buzz as she saw the man approach Hina, who greeted him with a hug. Botan tried to listen to their ensuing conversation, but she was too far away, the club was too noisy, and her hood was muffling all sounds anyway. She did not dare go any closer, as she sensed that they were sharing a tender moment, and she did not want to interrupt it – after all, doing so might change history in a way she was not trying to, she told herself.

Suddenly the man turned fully towards Botan as though to leave, stopping short as Hina grabbed his arm and held him back. Botan could not be sure what sort of demon he was: he had no strikingly unique characteristics that marked him as any kind of animal demon, so she assumed he was probably some kind of elemental demon. He almost looked human, and looked quite weak compared to the other demons around them. His clothing also indicated that he was not powerful or influential, and Botan wondered why Hina would be involved with such a character. But as she watched Hina tugged at his arm and appeared to be almost pleading with him. Eventually he managed to gently ease his way out of her hold and he quickly made his way out of the club.

"Wait, please!" Hina cried, running after him.

Botan turned away as Hina passed her to make sure that she would not be recognised, peering at the doorway until she saw Hina leave through it before daring to turn around.

Botan checked her hand: 43 minutes to go.

She hurriedly slipped her way through the crowds and out of the club again, quickly locating Hina and her friend, who had both stopped at the other side of the loosely arranged street. Botan crept as close to them as she could get, hiding herself behind a large cart that seemed to have been abandoned by the side of a tall building.

"This is the last time I can ever see you," she heard Hina say. "I have to go back for my daughter."

"I won't give up," the male demon replied.

"You're being unreasonable," Hina said. "I can't come down here again, it's too dangerous. I can't leave my daughter."

"I'm not giving up on you, please don't give up on me!"

"It's been a whole year already. He was thrown from the ice village, the fall would surely have killed him. It's time to give up."

"I will find our son, Hina."

Botan gasped, barely able to believe what she was hearing. She looked about for way to get closer to the couple without being seen, but could find none. In her desperation she clambered into the cart, burying herself under the canopy lying over it. At first she regretted her decision, finding herself surrounded by all manners of trinkets that clattered about beneath her, but she quickly crawled over them on her belly, lifting a flap of the canopy at the other side and peering out, finding herself a few feet closer to the two demons.

"I know he's still alive, you should too," the man said.

Hina shook her head, and he pulled her into a hug.

"Don't give up yet," he insisted. "I'll find our boy and we can all be together again. And no matter what, know that I will always love you."

Hina sighed and buried her face into his shoulder, saying something that Botan could not make out.

"It's okay to love, you know," the man told her. "Despite what you've been taught by those who raise you, it's not a crime or a weakness, I promise."

"But our son…"

"Don't cry, I'm going to find him. And when I do, you will give him his name."

"I can't hang onto hope any more. I… I love you too, but this can never be. Love isn't enough to make this work. I let my son die, I was weak, I-"

"Stop, don't say that. I promise you that I will find him and you must promise to think of a name for him. If you don't you're giving up on him."

Botan pulled a face. Hiei's mother had not named him? Then who had?

"He is the symbol of our love," the man said.

"Aw!" Botan whispered. "How wonderful! Hiei was born out of love! Wait, Hiei was born out of love? That's not wonderful, it's wonderfully ironic!"

"They said he was a monster," Hina said faintly.

Botan gasped, gripping the side of the cart in anticipation of what was to come next: but it never did as two large demons approached and Hina's lover took her hand, pulling her away. The two ran off together and Botan decided to follow, but as she tried to stand she was knocked back down as the cart was suddenly jolted upwards. She was thrown about mercilessly amongst the treasures around her, biting at her hood to keep from crying out as she felt bruises forming.

By the time Botan managed to find her balance amongst the chaos and crawl to the back of the cart, she lifted the canopy to see something that made her both sick and terrified: the cart was moving unbelievably fast, leaving the town far behind it, carrying Botan away from Hina and Hiei's father, and away from the portal she knew how to access.

"Oh dear," she muttered, dropping the canopy again.

Botan looked at her hand: 39 minutes left.

* * *

As Yusuke finally passed through the portal to the living world, the first sound that greeted him was his phone ringing.

"Can you grab that, Kurama?" he asked.

Kurama reached into Yusuke's pocket to retrieve the phone, looking down at the display.

"It's Keiko," he said. "Do you want me to answer it?"

"Yeah, tell her we're busy," Yusuke replied.

"Hello, Keiko?" Kurama answered the phone.

"Yusuke!" Keiko cried frantically back at him. "Kuwabara called, I've been trying to reach you for almost an hour! Kuwabara said "Botan used The Stolen Moment and it made her disappear and she hasn't come back". He said to get Ayame. What's going on?"

"Keiko, this is Kurama," Kurama corrected her. "Yusuke can't talk right now. Don't worry though, we've found Botan. If you can reach Kuwabara, perhaps you can let him know. And if you can reach Ayame, tell her to get here fast."

"What's happening?" Keiko demanded. "What's "The Stolen Moment"? Is it some sort of weapon?"

"We can talk about this later. Please Keiko, we need Ayame."

"Alright fine, I'll do what I can."

Kurama hung up the phone and Yusuke looked back at him as they ran.

"What did she want?" he asked.

"She said Kuwabara called to say that Botan disappeared after they found The Stolen Moment," Kurama replied. "Something must have gone wrong when she tried to destroy it, and somehow it sent her to demon world."

Yusuke glowered at Kurama.

"Is that seriously what you think happened here?" he asked in a low voice.

"The other alternative is something I would rather not consider at this point," Kurama replied.

Yusuke looked down at Botan's pale and limp form in his arms.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he muttered, more to himself than Kurama.

* * *

Hiei scaled a nearby tree with skill that a squirrel would be jealous of, taking himself to its highest point before leaning back, pulling the top of the tree with him and the leaping forwards, using the treetop as a catapult to rocket himself through the air. He had considered that what he was doing was probably not a good idea, for many reasons, but the lackadaisical attitudes of everyone else around him were starting to eat away at his common sense.

The dark-haired ferry girl screamed – as he knew she would – when he collided with her, and they tumbled through the air for several seconds before she righted herself and began trying to push him off.

"What are you doing?" she gasped.

"What are you doing, you stupid woman?" he snapped back, balancing his feet on the flat of her oar's blade.

"Let go of me," she hissed, tugging at her arm.

Hiei kept his fist clenched around the material of her kimono and glared down at her.

"Something happened to the other ferry girl, you have to take her back to spirit world," he said.

The woman in front of him arched her eyebrows and gave him a condescending look that made his blood boil: if she was not so necessary right then, he would have gladly torn her apart for looking at him in such a manner.

"I act according to the orders of Lord Koenma," she said sternly. "And for your information, he would not look kindly on a demon like you putting your hands on one of his ferry girls."

Hiei faltered for an instant at her words, and she proved to him then that he had misjudged her intelligence, as she immediately sensed his moment of vulnerability and spun around in the air. Hiei's feet slipped and he fell from her oar, her kimono tearing around his fingers, leaving him to fall to the ground with a handful of black silk.

He groaned as he back hit the ground, but his was up and on his feet in a heartbeat.

"Sneaky witch," he cursed her, before running after her again.

* * *

Botan checked her hand: 32 minutes to go.

The cart had stopped and her body had almost stopped throbbing from the various knocks she had taken during her brief journey. She had not dared look outside again since stopping, as she could hear several voices not far from her, and the amount of bad language they used was enough of a warning to her that they were not the most benevolent of demons and it was highly unlikely that they would be pleased to find her hiding amongst their loot.

Botan was torn between keeping herself safely concealed and making a break for her freedom: she had been travelling so fast she knew she must be miles from the town already, and she did not even know which direction to take to get back. And of course, she had a limited time to find out.

Botan checked her hand: 31 minutes remaining.

"This just won't do," she whispered to herself.

As carefully as she could, Botan picked her way to the nearest edge of the cart and peeled back the canopy, poking her head outside. It was quite dark, but a quick glance about told her that the darkness was an illusion, as the sky above was still moderately bright. She was in the heart of a thick forest, the trees obscuring most of the daylight and making the group of demons ahead of her appear as nothing more than shadows. Feeling confident that she could use the darkness to her advantage, Botan slid out of the cart and dropped to the ground, crouching low by the wheel and waiting there to be sure that she had not been spotted before moving on.

She dashed to the nearest tree, putting it between herself and the demons. Again she waited there, partly to try to get her bearings: but the trees were too densely-packed for her to make out much of anything. She dashed to the next closest tree, pressing her back to it and pausing there again. A sweat began to form along her brow, soaking into the hood of her tracksuit: she was not alone.

Botan swallowed hard before slowly turning her head, keeping herself flat against the trunk of the tree, she peered around for any visible trace of her follower. She saw nothing, but after a few seconds of looking she heard a small noise that almost sounded like someone saying "hn" somewhere beneath her. She slowly dipped her head and lowered her eyes, inhaling sharply through her nose and containing a scream at what she saw.

Peering up around the tree at her was a tiny face with enormous red eyes and a mess of black hair with a streak of white around the front section.

Botan slowly and carefully turned fully around to stand in front of him. He watched her every move without so much as blinking. She lowered herself into a crouch, but still her face was higher than his: he was almost ridiculously small. He was dressed in black and wore a long, flowing cloak, and around his neck hung a long, fine chain, supporting an unmistakably familiar hirui stone.

"Hiei?" Botan whispered.

The small face grinned at her.

* * *

Yusuke staggered to a halt, torn between relief and guilt as he looked at the two figures running towards him.

"Thank goodness," Kurama said, stopping at his side.

Yusuke's legs buckled and he fell to his knees, barely managing to lay Botan on the ground before he sank back to sit on his heels. Koenma dropped down at Botan's other side, the frantic concern even more evident on his teenage face than it had been on his baby face.

"What happened to her?" he asked.

"Oh dear…" George muttered as he knelt down by Koenma's side.

"She just fell out of the sky," Yusuke said, shaking his head.

"We learned through Kuwabara that she disappeared from the living world when she tried to destroy The Stolen Moment," Kurama said as he knelt down beside Yusuke.

Koenma looked up at Kurama with wide eyes.

"She died trying to destroy it?" he asked.

"She's not dead!" Yusuke said firmly.

"I managed to revive her, but she is extremely weak," Kurama added. "Her spirit energy is completely drained, and most of her life energy is gone too."

"She's been attacked," Koenma said, reaching a hand towards the wound on Botan's face.

"Yeah and somebody pissed on her too," Yusuke added. "And I swear if we find who did this to her, we'll kill him ourselves!"

"I'm sure that won't be necessary," Kurama said.

"I'm sure it will!" Yusuke snapped.

"I don't understand why Ayame isn't here yet," Koenma said. "She left spirit world before we did."

"We sent Hiei to find her," Yusuke said, wiping a hand down his face to clear the sweat and melted snow. "Will she be able to revive Botan?"

"I don't think she can heal wounds that severe," Koenma replied, pointing at the wound on Botan's face again. "But she can at least help. If it was just some physical wounds I wouldn't be worrying, but with such low spirit and life energy, it doesn't look too good."

"Are you saying she'll die?" Yusuke asked.

"I don't know," he said with a small shake of his head.

"Isn't there anything we can do?"

"Hope that she's strong enough to pull through."

"Hope that she's strong enough to pull through? Are you crazy? This is your fault, you know! You sent Botan to destroy that stupid device!"

To Yusuke's surprise, Koenma did not argue back. Instead he hung his head and gripped his fist at his knees.

"Damn…" Yusuke muttered.

* * *

There was no mistaking it: against all odds, Botan had actually found Hiei. He was barely bigger than Koenma and his face only a little more mature, but he was definitely Hiei. He was of course missing the dragon on his right arm and the jagan on his forehead – he probably did not even know what either of those things were, far less how he would come to acquire them – but he had the same spiked black hair with the same starburst of white, he had the same upturned, deep red eyes, the same delicate features and smooth pale skin that ought to detract from his masculinity and yet somehow never did.

"Hiei!" she gushed. "Look at you, you're so small and so young! And so… Well, you're quite ugly, aren't you?"

Hiei's smile did not falter.

"A bit disproportionate, I suppose," she added quietly. "Chubby little hands, stubby little nose, big forehead, wide eyes…"

Botan stopped herself as she realised what she was saying and to whom she was saying it.

"But take heart," she added. "You grow up to be a very handsome young man!"

Botan smiled at him, but as he continued to grin back at her a little too widely, she began to feel as though she was no longer looking at baby Hiei but rather present-day Hiei.

"Not that I've noticed," she added. "Because I haven't. I don't look at you like that – I mean, I don't think about you like that – I mean I don't think about you at all – I mean I don't like you – I mean I don't like you like that, if you know what I mean."

Hiei continued to grin. Botan sighed.

"Look at yourself, you stupid ferry girl," she muttered. "Trying to convince a toddler that you're not attracted to him. You must be losing it."

"Are you talking to yourself, or the brat?" a voice asked her.

Botan screamed, standing up and turning her head to the source of the voice in alarm. A tall and lanky grey-skinned demon with silver hair and pointed ears was grinning at her amusedly.

"What sort of witch are you, anyway?" he asked.

"Witch?" Botan echoed. "How very dare you?"

"What's with those weird clothes you're wearing?" he added, waggling a finger at her pink velour tracksuit and well-muddied pink sneakers. "What are you hiding underneath that hood?"

Botan gasped, touching her hands to her hood, which was still drawn tightly around her face.

"What are those weird markings on your hands?" the demon asked.

Botan turned her hands over: one was still littered with red streaks from the frost burn Hina had given her and the other told her she had used up exactly half of her time in the past already.

"I'm bald," she said suddenly, unsure herself where such a ridiculous lie had come from. "And I'm very self-conscious about it, so if you don't mind mister, I'll just keep this hood up thank you very much!"

Botan turned to little Hiei.

"You're coming with me, Hiei," she said.

"Whoa there, crazy," the demon said, stepping forwards and grabbing her shoulder. "That little shit belongs to us."

Botan gasped.

"How dare you call Hiei a name like that?" she hissed, jerking her shoulder out of his grip. "And how dare you use language like that around an infant? You sir, are a very bad man. Now if you will excuse me, I don't have much time left in this world, I have to make every minute I have left matter. I'm going to take Hiei back to his mother."

"What are you talking about, woman?" the demon echoed. "And what the hell is a "hiei"?"

"Not what, who!" she corrected him. "And this is Hiei!"

The demon looked down at Hiei with a curious frown.

"You didn't know that was his name?" Botan asked.

The demon shook his head, before proceeding to tell Botan that his gang had assumed that Hiei had no name, and so they had been calling him by a word Botan was sure had a terribly offensive meaning.

"What a disgrace!" she cried in outrage.

"I can't let you take him, whatever his name is," the demon warned her. "First of all, that kid and that stone belong to us. He won't let us take the stone, but he's a pretty efficient killer and thief, he more than earns his keep, so we ain't giving him up for anything. Second of all, that kid is stronger than my boss, he'll eat you alive you dumb whore."

"We'll just see about that!" Botan snapped.

"Please, go ahead and try to take him away," the demon snorted. "Me and the boys need something to laugh at."

"It's "the boys and I need something to laugh at", actually. And I just mi–oh, holy mother of–!"

Botan looked down sharply, her eyes doubling in size as she saw Hiei had grabbed her leg and sunk his teeth into the back of her knee, and blood was already soaking through the soft pink fabric of her sweatpants.

"Hiei!" she cried, trying to ignore the laughter building in the trees around her. "Stop that! Don't you remember who–oh, wait, you haven't met me yet, you don't know who I am yet… But you will one day mister, and when you do, you will regret biting my leg like that! Yusuke will punch your lights out for that, Mister Hiei!"

Botan paused.

"Wait, maybe he won't, actually," she muttered. "Because once I take you back to your mother, you won't be a horrible little boy any more, and you won't become a criminal, so you'll never steal the shadow sword, and then Yusuke will never meet you–oh, I don't have time for this!"

Botan reached down and grabbed Hiei's tiny shoulders and began pushing him back. He eventually let go of her leg, but she had been pushing at him with such force that, upon the sudden release of pressure on his part, she pushed him over to the ground, where he landed quite hard.

"Oh my goodness, Hiei!" she wailed, dropping to her knees and gathering him up into her arms. "Oh Hiei, I'm so sorry!"

Botan cuddled baby Hiei into her chest, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment: it was probably the only time she would ever be able to hold him so close without him trying to kill her, she decided. His body was as intensely warm as it was in the present day and his scent was almost exactly the same: Botan inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and losing herself in the dull smoky aroma uniquely blended with the sweet woody scent of tree sap. The moment was almost adorably cute and uniquely sublime. Almost.

"Oh–G–th–Hiei!" Botan choked out as his razor sharp little teeth suddenly clamped onto the side of her face.

She screamed out, tears bursting freely from her left eye as she felt one of his fangs pierce clear through her left nostril and another puncture her top lip. His tiny hands gripped at her neck as though he was trying to choke the life from her.

"Well…" she said in strained voice. "There's no mistaking it: this is definitely Hiei!"

"Don't say I didn't warn you lady," the grey-skinned demon muttered at her side. "So why do you call him Hiei?"

"Because that's his name!" Botan snapped. "He's a flying shadow!"

"I guess that makes sense."

"And now I have to take him back to his mother."

Botan summoned her oar and used it to prise Hiei from her face, catching him awkwardly in her arms before he fell to the ground again. She saw her own blood spilling from the wounds he had opened on her face, red splats littering his hands and face as he grinned maniacally up at her through blood stained teeth.

"You are a bit of a handful, Hiei," she muttered. "But I don't have time to teach you how wrong you are. I'll be taken from this world in mere minutes, we have to go."

"I don't think so," the grey-skinned demon said, stepping forwards.

Botan swung her oar around, swatting him over the head. She then hurriedly leapt onto her oar and took off into the darkening sky, barely escaping the gang of demons who tried to grab her as she went.

"Oh Hiei," she said with a sigh. "That was close!"

Hiei – who was resting on her lap quite contentedly at that moment – grinned up at her with the same vicious glint in his big eyes.

Botan checked her left hand: 26 minutes left.

"Now we just have to find that town again," she said. "And lucky for you, Mister Hiei, I found your father, too! You can grow up with your sister, your mother and your father! You will know love, and you will grow up to be a nice, pleasant boy!"

Botan smiled and pulled one sleeve over her hand to wipe it against the corners of Hiei's mouth to clear the blood there.

"I suppose you're not terribly ugly, though I certainly can't say that you're cute," she said.

Hiei's grin widened and he shot forwards, sinking his teeth into Botan's abdomen, causing her to cross her eyes and scream out in pain, her oar faltering beneath her. They juddered about in the air, Botan clinging to her oar to keep them afloat and Hiei clinging to her belly, apparently intent on tearing free a chunk of flesh from her.

"Hiei," she growled through tightly clenched teeth. "You have to stop this, or you'll kill us both, which absolutely defeats the point of me being here!"

Hiei bit harder and Botan did something that shocked them both: she drew back one hand and slapped him hard across the face.

* * *

The dark and dull ferry girl eventually came down to the ground as she reached a group stopped in the hillside. Hiei shoved the boring ferry girl to the ground to get past her, finding Kurama, Yusuke, Koenma and one of his minions kneeling around Botan, who looked just as deathly as she had when they had first encountered her in demon world.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, looking around the four faces watching her. "Why aren't you helping her?"

"There's not much we can do now, Hiei," Koenma said.

The prince looked like shit, Hiei thought to himself. He was in his adult form, and his pacifier was missing. His hair was wet and plastered around his effeminate face and the dulled look in his eyes said that he had lost all hope.

"Tell me what I have to do, Kurama!" Hiei barked, dropping to his knees by Botan's feet.

"She's lost all of her spirit energy and a significant amount of her life energy," Kurama replied. "We're not sure how this could have happened to her."

"I'll give her some of my life energy," Yusuke said. "That worked for me before, right? When I fought Suzaku? Kuwabara gave me some of his life energy and I was practically brought back to life."

Yusuke started to move but Hiei shoved him back hard.

"I'm stronger than you, I'll give her mine!" he snapped, before falling on top of Botan and gripping at her shoulders.

He closed his eyes and began transferring his own life energy into her.

* * *

Hiei was looking up at Botan, his blood-filled mouth hanging open and his enormous scarlet eyes wide and startled. Botan was looking back down at him, her mouth open as wide as it would in light of the swelling she was suffering from his second bite, her pink eyes wide in disbelief.

"Oh Hiei!" she gasped, gathering him into a hug. "I'm so sorry! You can't help what you're doing, you don't know any better! But it's okay now, you don't have to be that way from now on. You are free to be happy at last, Hiei."

To Botan's surprise, Hiei let her cuddle him. She righted herself and they flew on for a long time in that manner. After a short time Botan eased Hiei back a little, looking down to see that he was asleep. He was just a baby, probably no more than the one year of age that Hina had claimed he was, and although he was already very strong and vicious, he was still just a child. Botan sighed and allowed herself a smile – though by then smiling was almost impossible as her face was quite swollen and painful.

Botan gathered Hiei against her chest again and checked her hand: 17 minutes left.

The town was nowhere to be seen. Botan used Hiei's nap as an opportunity to start healing the wounds he had given her. She concentrated first on the one on her stomach, focussing hard and exhausting a substantial amount of spirit energy just to seal the wound to stop it bleeding. When she had finished with just that one wound she was light-headed and her oar was juddering, forcing her to focus all her remaining spirit energy on keeping them in the air.

"You really are quite a strong little bugger already, aren't you Hiei?" she whispered. "But when I see you again, as a grown-up, I have a feeling you will be a completely different demon. And then maybe you won't be so cruel to me. And we…"

Botan fell silent, cuddling Hiei closer and thinking carefully about what she was doing. If Hiei did grow up to be a completely different demon, he would not be Hiei at all. He would not have the jagan if she followed through with her plan and he would probably not have mastered the dragon of the darkness flame either. He would not even know who she was: she would need to start all over with him. But that would be easier if he was nicer, right?

"I wonder…" she whispered into the wind. "Maybe I'm doing you a great injustice, Hiei."

She looked down at his tiny sleeping face.

"Were you really so bad just the way you were? What right do I have to do this…? I…"

Botan's nose creased as Hiei began to stir from his sleep. His eyes slowly opened, looking up at her through a haze of sleep, unfocussed and innocent. Botan eased him back a little, and suddenly felt her lap being blasted by cold air, the smell of urine invading her senses.

"Couldn't they have at least put something on you until you were toilet trained?" she grumbled.

Botan sighed and began to take them in for a landing. If nothing else, she intended to ask for directions.

Botan checked her hand: 14 minutes left.

"I've failed, haven't I Hiei?" she said softly as they neared the ground. "This was the one thing I could have given you for Valentine's Day and I've ruined it. You were right: I am useless."

On the ground Botan placed Hiei down on his feet, looking down at herself miserably. Her tracksuit was torn, bloodstained, urine soaked and muddy. She looked and smelt awful. She contemplated cleaning Hiei up after his little accident, but the thought of facing him as an adult afterwards made it too awkward to seriously consider. Instead she took a hold of his hand and started walking him towards a group of demons sitting around a table playing cards.

As she neared them, Hiei sank his teeth into her wrist and she moaned out in pain.

"Excuse me?" she said in a strained voice as she reached the table, blood pumping out of her wrist and down the sides of Hiei's face. "Can any of you tell me where I can find the ice village?"

"Lady, you've got a mini monster trying to eat off your arm," a panther demon told her.

"Oh no, don't mind him," Botan said with a forced smile. "He's… My son."

The panther frowned slightly, and Botan tried to make her smile seem convincing.

"Maybe we can help you, but we'll need payment," the panther said.

Botan checked her hand – which luckily was not the one Hiei was gnawing it – and saw that she had 12 minutes left.

"I don't have long left in this world, and in this life," she said, slamming her hand down onto the table. "I need to find the ice village! I'm here on borrowed time, do you understand?"

The demons shook their heads and Botan growled in frustration.

Her hand told her she had just wasted another minute.

"Well, I suppose I'm rewriting history anyway, I can probably say whatever I want," she muttered, pushing her hand into her pocket. "Now listen carefully," she addressed the table of demons. "I've come here by the power of The Stolen Moment to save Hiei. He's going to grow up to be a moody little man with no manners if I don't do this. I have to get him back so that he can grow up with his twin sister Yukina. I'm here on borrowed time. The Stolen Moment allows time travel, and it will be lost for another 99 years, before it appears in the living world."

Botan slammed down her ferry girl notebook, open at her page of notes on The Stolen Moment.

"There, you see?" she said. "That device allowed me to travel here from the future to save Hiei."

The demons all eyed Botan over as though she was crazy.

10 minutes left.

"What are you hiding under that hood?" a horned demon asked her. "A lobotomy scar? And what's with those weird markings on your hand?"

Botan sighed as patiently as she could manage.

"I'm bald, and very sensitive about it," she said, deciding to continue the lie she had told the bandit who had tried to stop her taking Hiei. "And I like tattoos. Now please, you have to help me find the ice village!"

"Sure, it's up in the sky, over that way," the panther said.

Botan did not know if he was telling the truth or not, but she did not have the time left to argue with him. She hurriedly wrestled her arm free from Hiei and healed it enough to stop the bleeding. She then turned to recover her notebook from the table, stuffing it back into her coat pocket.

"Thank you," she said, bowing to the demons.

She held out her hand and tried to summon her oar, but nothing happened. She tensed, frowning at the empty air in front of her palm.

She lifted up her other hand: 9 minutes left.

With a great strain, Botan eventually managed to summon her oar, hopping onto it and grabbing up Hiei with her. As they flew upwards Botan struggled to keep them in the air.

Her hand told her she had 8 minutes remaining.

Ahead of her, in the sky, she could see clouds of all shapes, sizes and depths, and the air was growing bitterly cold. She cuddled Hiei closer for warmth, wincing as he bit into her shoulder and her oar shuddered beneath her legs.

Botan checked her hand: 7 minutes left.

She did not have long, and she supposed it would be alright to resort to a slightly desperate tactic: Botan began using her life energy to force her oar to fly higher and faster, rocketing them into the grey clouds. Soon they were surrounded and blinded, and the air began to fill with ice crystals that reflected tiny and beautiful rainbows of light back at them.

Botan's hand told her she had 6 minutes left.

It was not long enough to find the ice village, find Hina (or Rui, she decided) and convince her to take Hiei back, she thought miserably, and simply getting there alone was not enough.

5 minutes left.

Botan expended the last of her spirit energy and began relying wholly on her life energy to fly on through the thickening cloud and the slight resistance of demon energy she could feel present there. At least she appeared to be approaching the ice village, she consoled herself.

4 minutes.

Hiei made a small "hn", and Botan felt his weight moving from her legs. She grabbed at him desperately to stop him from falling, finding him grinning wildly at her again. In one hand, he was building a red ball of energy that was emitting intense heat, vaporising the ice crystals around them.

"Hiei…?" she whispered faintly.

The ball began to crackle and burn.

3 minutes.

"Hiei, please don't do that," Botan begged. "If you launch that, I might drop you!"

Hiei grinned wider.

Ahead of her Botan could see the faint shadowy outline of a village comprised of houses with spiked rooftops.

She was so close, but it was taking all of her energy to keep herself up, moving forwards at speed and to push against the heavy, freezing clouds around her.

Hiei drew back his glowing hand and took aim.

2 minutes.

* * *

"Do you think he overdid it a bit?" Yusuke whispered to Kurama as Hiei flopped onto his back at Botan's side.

Koenma, George and Ayame backed up to give Hiei room, all staring down at him in slightly fearful disbelief.

"I think everything is as it was meant to be," Kurama replied. "Whether that's for the best or not, only time will tell."

"You're talking in riddles again, fox boy…" Yusuke grumbled.

Kurama leaned over Botan and Yusuke joined him, both smiling a little as they saw that she appeared to be breathing more easily and some of the colour had returned to her face.

"Can you carry her down the hill?" Kurama asked Yusuke.

"Sure," Yusuke agreed, gathering Botan into his arms again. "Though maybe when she wakes up I'll tell her she needs to go on a diet…"

Kurama shook his head slightly before crawling over to Hiei's side.

"Hiei?" he said, shaking Hiei's shoulder experimentally.

"What just happened here?" Koenma asked.

"Hiei just gave Botan some of his life energy," Kurama answered him.

"That's not exactly what I meant, Kurama," Koenma replied, his brow lowering into a frown. "I know what happened, I just don't understand why."

Kurama smiled whimsically at him before pulling Hiei up and manoeuvring him onto his back. As Kurama stood and Hiei slouched against him, Koenma held up a hand to stop him from following after Yusuke.

"I'm confused," he admitted.

"Well it would appear that The Stolen Moment could not be destroyed so easily as we had expected," Kurama calmly replied. "The theory was that if it was ignited by a person with no desire to travel back in time, it would simply explode harmlessly with no ill effect, and yet somehow when Botan tried this method it sent her to demon world, the transition somehow injuring her in the way we see now."

"That wasn't what I meant," Koenma said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Though I still don't understand why being sent to demon world would leave Botan with tooth-marks in her face."

"I believe it would be wise to let Botan and Hiei rest for now. This is not the time for questions."

Koenma nodded, but Kurama did not miss the way his eyes wandered to Hiei and one of his eyebrows twitched slightly upwards. Satisfied that Koenma had said all that he intended to then, Kurama walked on quickly, Yusuke coming into his sights again after a few minutes, near the foot of the hill. He heard a grunt in his ear and felt Hiei twitch, indicating that the fire demon was waking up again already.

"Hiei, there is something I must ask you," Kurama said, slowing his pace a little to keep himself behind Yusuke and out of earshot.

"What?" Hiei moaned groggily.

"That strange woman who kidnapped you as a child, the bald one in the unusual clothing with the tattoos, what happened to her in the end? How did you get away from her?"

"I killed her."

"I see. Can you remember how?"

"I blasted her into oblivion."

* * *

Hiei snarled and took aim at Botan's face.

"Hiei, no!" she screamed.

In her desperation she gripped her hands into his cloak and leaned back, spinning around in a full circle in the air, hoping to disorient him. The village was so close, she just needed a little longer.

But she only had 1 minute left.

"Hiei, please, I'm trying to help you!" she pleaded.

But there was not an ounce of remorse in those red, red eyes. Hiei took aim again, this time launching his attack without hesitation. Botan was engulfed by a wall of smoke, and she felt her oar vanish beneath her.

She tumbled through the air, free-falling helplessly, the smoke fading to be replaced by heavy snow. The cold and wet of the snow brought Botan back to her senses long enough for her to draw once more from her diminishing reserve of life energy to summon her oar and level out in the sky.

Hiei was gone.

Botan's heart skipped a beat.

"No!" she cried.

She began swooping about aimlessly through the clouds and snow.

"No!" she screamed, over and over.

She had done the worst thing imaginable: she had dropped Hiei from the ice village all over again. She had gone back to help him, but instead she had killed him. His attack had not hurt her, so she could only conclude that she had dodged it. In saving her own life, she had sacrificed his.

"Hiei!" she yelled, her eyes blurring with tears and her voice shaking. "Hiei, no! Please, no!"

Botan screamed out one last heartfelt cry of despair before losing consciousness, her oar vanishing and her body falling from the sky.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** The chaos concludes from the time travel incident, and all that is left is the consequences; thankfully one person seems to have figured out exactly what has happened. **Chapter 15 – The Why of Hiei**.


	15. The Why of Hiei

**Recap:** Botan went back in time and tried to convince Hiei's mother to take him back and raise him and also she tried to take Hiei back to the ice village, but she ultimately failed at both tasks, almost getting killed by nasty little toddler Hiei in the process – whilst ironically she was saved by nasty little adult Hiei in the present day.

* * *

 **Chapter 15: The Why of Hiei**

Botan began to wake up: which was something of a wonder to her, as she had been sure that she had condemned herself to the netherworld for using The Stolen Moment, messing with history and exhausting all of her spirit energy and practically all of her life energy.

She felt heavy, stiff and almost every part of her body ached. Well that meant that she must be alive, at least. She looked around the faces looking down at her, feeling a little confused.

"Who are you?" she asked them.

They looked around themselves, exchanging frowns of confusion before turning their attention back to her.

"It's us, Botan," one boy answered her. "Don't you remember? Don't tell me you got amnesia!"

"Tell me who you are," she asked.

She had to be sure.

"I'm Yusuke Urameshi, and I'm seriously pissed off that you don't remember me!" the boy replied. "After all that we've been through? This is my girlfriend, Keiko, that's Kurama, that's Kuwabara, that's Yukina and that idiot with the pacifier in his mouth is Koenma."

Botan managed a small smile. It made no sense that the new future she had created had allowed all of these wonderful people back into her life, but she was not about to question it. She could not help but notice that one face was missing though, and she had to know why. Had she killed Hiei, or had she managed to get him back to the ice village somehow?

"Is this everyone?" she asked quietly.

"Ayame is outside with George the ogre," Yusuke said. "The big guy was a blubbering mess, so we made her take him out of here."

Botan's smile vanished. Hiei was not a part of the group any more. Strange though that everything else seemed to be exactly the same.

"Well, I'm sure we can all agree that it is certainly a relief to see Botan awake," Kurama said in his usual calm and yet commanding tone. "But might I suggest that we let her rest. She is still injured and weakened, and needs to relax."

The others nodded, and one by one they began to file out of the room. Kurama lingered back, sliding the door shut as Koenma finally left under duress. He sighed heavily before turning to Botan and approaching her bedside again.

"I know what really happened to you," he said. "Or at least, I can take an educated guess: you made a wish on The Stolen Moment, and it sent you back in time."

Botan tensed, her eyes slowly widening in panic.

"The others think that the device malfunctioned, and merely sent you into demon world, and you were injured during the transition," Kurama continued. "But I don't think that was the case at all."

He reached a hand into his hair, removing a roll of paper. As he unfurled it, Botan was at first curious, but soon began to feel physically sick at what she saw, her mind already anticipating what he was about to say.

"This is the illustration of The Stolen Moment that we recovered from demon world," he explained. "I assume it is familiar to you? And I assume that if I was to check your notebook, I would find that this page would have a place there."

Botan looked down at the sketch, littered with her own faded handwriting. She could not even remember it being torn from her notebook. She thought about it a little longer and then remembered that she had placed her notebook down on the table the panther demon and his four associates had been playing cards at, and she concluded that one of them must have taken it then, during her moment of distraction with Hiei biting her hand.

"Where is my notebook?" she asked, looking down at herself.

Somebody had changed her into a clean set of pyjamas, and the notebook had last been in the pocket of her velour tracksuit. She watched Kurama cross the room to a small vanity desk, opening the top drawer and removing her battered old book. He walked back to her bedside and held it out to her.

"I don't understand," she said as she took it from him. "How could you and the team have recovered the page from my notebook before I even put it there?"

Botan flipped through the pages to the section on The Stolen Moment, her heart sinking when she saw the feathered, stumpy remains by the spine where the whole page had been torn free. She peered over the top of the pages at Kurama, finding him looking distinctly stern and tense.

"You left this in demon world 99 years ago," he explained, holding up the page. "We found it two days ago."

"But two days ago is before I used The Stolen Moment!" Botan argued.

"You used The Stolen Moment after we found this, to take yourself back to a time before we found it," he replied. "It was a circular event. One could not have happened without the other. You were already destined to use the device before you even found it, because if you had not used it, this page would never have arrived in demon world, and nobody ever would have gone looking for The Stolen Moment, and therefore you would never have been ordered to destroy it."

Botan lowered her open notebook to rest against her chest.

"That's very confusing, Kurama," she said. "I don't even understand how you know that I used The Stolen Moment, I thought I changed history?"

"You did, Botan," Kurama replied. "But you did it 99 years ago, and everything that has happened since has been a result of that. We were already living in the new future you had created, so there has been no change."

"Wait, are you saying that I only would have created a chaotic new future if I hadn't gone back in time?" Botan asked.

"If you hadn't gone back, it would have been because you were never meant to," he replied. "Think of it like this: if you had not made the wish, if you had not gone back in time, you would not have been present to leave this page in demon world, nobody there would have learned of The Stolen Moment, there would not have been any abductions, Lord Koenma would not have hired us to investigate the matter, and you would not have come in contact with The Stolen Moment. The fact that you did, means that you were always meant to use it."

Botan pulled a face at Kurama, though her gesture was short-lived, as she still throbbed where baby Hiei had chomped into her nose, lip and cheek.

"You got all of that from a page?" she asked.

"Not quite," he replied. "Some research into The Stolen Moment and a few interesting conversations with Hiei about his past helped me realise the truth. If I am correct, you must be the crazy woman who tried to kidnap Hiei when he was just an infant."

Botan grinned nervously, though her gesture quickly ended as her face throbbed.

"I see," Kurama said with a nod. "Using the device was incredibly selfish and infinitely idiotic. I'm not sure what to think of you now. I'm not sure if you are incredibly stupid or incredibly naïve for doing this, Botan."

"Well neither of those options sound flattering," Botan responded with a pout.

"A strategic person such as myself would have gone back in time and visited a young me," Kurama continued, ignoring her reply. "I would have attempted to create something rarely found: a wise head on young shoulders. I would have imparted all the key information that has made me who I am unto my younger self in order to avoid some of the disasters I have faced in my long life, to make myself stronger, smarter and to hopefully avoid where I find myself today, inhabiting this body."

"That makes sense."

"But it would have had its costs. I have learnt so much in this body and in this life that I never could have as Youko. A reckless, egotistical person like Hiei would have used the device to go back incrementally: a journey back a few years to kill Tarukane before he kidnapped Yukina before locating The Stolen Moment from that era and using it to go further back. He would have kept going back until he had corrected every regret he ever had, creating a tide of chaos that would have drowned us all when it came crashing in."

"I never thought that there was another version of The Stolen Moment in the time I went back to. I could have dug it up and used it!"

"But you didn't. Perhaps it was for the best that it was a person like you who did use it. Though I am curious: just what did you plan to do 99 years in the past?"

Botan hesitated before answering, feeling unwilling to reveal the exact details of her plans to anyone; but the look on Kurama's face and the idea that she was already likely to be facing severe punishment from King Enma for using The Stolen Moment to begin with made her believe that her situation could not really get much worse, and so she might as well confess.

"I wanted to help Hiei," she said quietly. "I just thought that maybe if I could convince his mother to take him back and bring him up with Yukina, he would be happier than he is now – than he was before I went back. But I misjudged the time somehow. I tried to go back when he was just a few months old, but he was already a year old when I got there."

"You realise the ice maidens conceive at 100 years old, and do not give birth at that age?" Kurama asked her. "And also a demon's gestation period is substantially shorter than a human's."

"Oh."

"And you do realise that the Hiei you have always known had already been influenced by your excursion back in time before today?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your journey back in time was an entirely circular event. You haven't changed anything in the life you know by going back, because you had already changed it. I am curious to know what influence you did have on current events though. Obviously you led those demons to the portal and to The Stolen Moment; but who else did you interact with back then? What other changes were you destined to make?"

"I'm still a little confused."

"Who else did you speak with? Apart from the group of demons led by a panther and the bandits Hiei was with, who did you speak to?"

"I asked a woman for directions, I spoke to Hina because I thought she was Yukina, I saw Hiei's father, but I didn't speak to him, and I spent most of the rest of my time with Hiei. He had very sharp teeth at that age."

Kurama gave a small smile.

"Yes, well, from what I hear, Hiei was a mid-level A-class demon by the time he was five years old," he said. "Which is perhaps why your wounds were so severe. The Hiei you met 99 years ago was arguably stronger than the Hiei who stole the shadow sword."

"Really?" Botan echoed. "But… Why did he get weaker?"

"The operation he endured to have the jagan eye implanted drained all of his power," Kurama explained.

"Why would he do that?"

Kurama's face changed slightly before he covered it with another small smile

"And apparently young Hiei had a weak bladder, also?" he asked.

"Yes, unfortunately he kind of… Wet himself on me," Botan flatly replied. "Which was actually about the nicest thing he did to me. He was so determined to kill me."

"His memory of the events are that he did kill you," Kurama replied. "He doesn't remember too much about the whole affair, but he thinks that he killed you with one blast."

"He almost did. I thought that he had! I think I was sent back to this time at the exact moment he blasted me, though I didn't realise that at the time. I thought that I'd thrown him off my oar to avoid the attack. I thought I'd thrown him to his death."

"Which is why you were so distraught when you returned to the present day – you were looking for the Hiei you had left behind in time."

Botan dared to smile.

"So I didn't kill him?" she asked.

"It would take more than a fall to kill Hiei," Kurama flatly replied.

Botan sighed deeply.

"Oh thank heavens!" she gushed. "But where is he?"

"He's asleep," Kurama replied. "He needs to recover his energy."

"His energy? He unleashed the dragon? But why? What happened?"

"He didn't unleash the dragon, he transferred a significant amount of his energy to you."

Botan's eyes grew wide.

"Perhaps while you are recovering, you will take the time to consider what recent events have taught you, and when you are a little better, you can act as you see fit."

Botan was unsure what Kurama meant, but she decided that he was probably telling her that she ought to confess the full details of her indiscretion with The Stolen Moment to Koenma.

"I shall grant you a favour," he continued. "I will not repeat a word of what you have told me in here, nor will I share any of my theories on your activities with anyone else. I think it would do more harm than good if everyone else was aware of what you did."

"You… Thank you, Kurama. But I don't understand why you would cover up my stupid mistakes like that."

"I said I would grant you a favour. This means that I expect you to grant me a favour in return."

"Oh, I see. What do you want?"

"I haven't decided yet. I'll let you know when I have."

Botan paled as Kurama turned from her and started towards the door, the back of his head seeming every bit as frightening as his eyes had when he had spoken his last words.

"You should rest for now and heal yourself," he advised as he slid open the door. "We shall talk again once you are recovered."

Kurama stepped out of the room and slid the door shut behind himself, leaving Botan once more terrified: what sort of favour was Kurama going to ask for in return for the staggeringly enormous one he was going to do for her?

* * *

Botan awoke early the next morning, the sky still dull outside the window at her side. She was not in the same room she had shared with Yukina, but she did not mind. Although it was very early, she was wide awake and she felt oddly energetic. She looked about herself, gasping as she located Yukina and Kuwabara asleep on the floor a few feet from her bedside. She slowly sat up, relieved to find that doing so did not cause her any pain, and she leaned forwards to get a better look at the sight on the ground.

Yukina was on her side in a foetal position, one hand clutching one corner of Botan's sheets, her body facing Botan. Kuwabara was lying about a foot behind her on his back, his arms and legs sprawled across most of the rest of the floor in the room, his mouth hanging wide open, soft snores escaping his throat.

"Well isn't that almost cute?" Botan muttered, pushing back her sheets.

She carefully got up to her feet and leapt off of the bed, landing by the doorway. She checked over her shoulder to see that she had not woken either of her friends before quietly sliding open the door and sneaking out into the hall.

Botan quickly and quietly found her way to the nearest bathroom, where she positioned herself in front of a mirror and began checking her wounds. She still had some faint marks around her wrist and her face where the worst of Hiei's bites had been, but the one she had healed on her stomach and the one on her leg had vanished entirely. She felt almost hyperactive and she briefly wondered if it was a side effect of having some of Hiei's life energy in her: but she quickly dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

She wondered who had cleaned her, changed her clothes and dressed her wounds: and how she had got back to Genkai's temple from demon world. But, she told herself, she could ask the others about the finer details when they all woke up. Her reflection showed her looking a little wild, her hair completely loose and falling down over her shoulders in bed-ruffled waves, her eyes gleaming with the energy she was suddenly brimming with.

"I know!" she whispered, darting out of the room.

Botan ran towards the front door, summoning her oar as she went. A nice fly in the dawn air would be refreshing and ought to help her work off that excess energy. And, she thought cheerfully, the very fact that she had managed to materialise her oar meant that her life energy was back to normal and her spirit energy was almost entirely restored too. As soon as she was out of the door Botan swung her oar under her legs and started off towards the temple steps, rising at a shallow angle.

"Hey!"

Botan almost fell off her oar at the sound of a voice yelling at her, managing to bring herself to a steady hover above the gate, looking down the seemingly never-ending steps that connected Genkai's temple to the outside world. She looked about the steps themselves before turning around, shortly locating a sole figure standing by the edge of the forest to one side of the gate, looking up at her intensely.

"Hiei," Botan breathed, sliding forwards and lowering herself to the ground in front of him.

As her feet touched the ground Botan began to frown. Hiei looked awful: he was sweating, his eyes were wide, his teeth were bared and tightly clenched together, his fists were balled at his sides and, most worrying of all, he was clearly shaking all over.

"Hiei?" she asked, taking a step towards him.

He snarled like an animal and turned his head to one side. His face twitched slightly before he spat over his shoulder.

"Hn, so it seems that even angels sin sometimes," he ground out.

"What?" Botan echoed.

Hiei shoved a hand down his vest, roughly removing a newspaper. He flung it at Botan, reminding her of the farmer from the past. She caught it awkwardly, opening it out to study the front page.

"More alien sightings at famous alien hotspot," she read aloud.

She frowned, noticing that the so-called "alien hotspot" was in fact the farm The Stolen Moment had been hidden in, the picture apparently taken before she and Kuwabara had gone there, since the hole they had dug was not present. Looking further down the page she saw a crude, pencil-drawn caricature of Hiei. She had seen a similar image of him before in newspapers around the common portals to demon world, and she failed to see why it was more significant this time around.

"Turn the page," Hiei spat.

"Okay dokay," Botan said, turning the page.

She mewed in alarm, her jaw dropping. The next page contained a story about previous "alien sightings" which dated back to a significant sighting on February 13th 99 years earlier: and an artists' impression of that sighting showed a girl with a high ponytail, wearing a velour tracksuit and trainers and pulling a cat face.

"This isn't what it looks like…" she said slowly, lowering the newspaper to look at Hiei.

"Don't lie to me!" he snapped, pointing a finger at her and turning to glare at her directly. "I know what that is! You spirit world bastards knew The Stolen Moment was there all this time, because you buried it there 99 years ago, and there is the proof!"

"…What?"

"99 years ago, Koenma gave you that device and told you to hide it. He trusted you to hide it because you're too stupid to actually use it, and all this time we were wasting running around looking for rebels and the device, you knew exactly where it was!"

Deep down, Botan was unbelievably relieved that Hiei had not understood the real reason why she had been sighted in that location 99 years ago, but she hid that as best she could, since his accusation was easier to bear that the truth of the matter.

"And he trusted you to destroy it, too," Hiei continued. "You went in there blindly and tried to destroy it, and it almost wiped you out of existence! You stupid, stupid woman! Why did you go there alone?"

"I didn't go there alone!" Botan quickly replied, smiling gently. "I had Kuwabara with me."

"That idiot was no help to you," Hiei argued. "And he proved that when he let you get hurt and then did nothing to try to find you!"

"Hiei, that's a little harsh–"

"A little harsh? You could have been obliterated out of existence, do you even understand what that would have meant?"

Botan shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, and Hiei spun around, punching a fist into a tree. The bark shattered under his blow and the trunk cracked and bent, the length of the tree leaning towards them a little and casting them into shadow.

"You stupid, stupid, stupid woman!" Hiei growled.

"I'm sorry, Hiei," Botan apologised.

"You just… You never think! About anything! It's infuriating!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"I left the border patrol and put myself at risk to join this pointless mission! I risked my own reputation in demon world for this!"

"I am truly sorry, Hiei. But you are free to go back to demon world now, and if you like, I will make sure that the next time Lord Koenma has a need for your assistance he does not bother you."

"Stop saying such stupid things!"

Botan tensed as Hiei's voice echoed around the trees, his eyes positively glowing through the dusky light around them.

"You shouldn't promise such things, you idiot!" he added in a lower, quieter voice. "You don't have the authority to make promises like that. I wonder why you do."

Botan pulled a face at him.

"You've never complained about me defying Lord Koenma's rulings before when it has suited you," she reminded him. "I was responsible for you being freed from probation after you stole the shadow sword, if you remember. And something you may not know: it's only because of me that you were allowed out of prison to accompany Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara in the fight against the Four Saint Beasts! I was the one who convinced Lord Koenma that you had behaved well during your imprisonment. I was the one who had your sentence lessened to containment in the living world. If it wasn't for me, you would still be sitting in a cell in spirit world!"

"That only proves my point!" Hiei shot back. "I don't need your pity, ferry girl! And you don't need to put yourself in danger like that!"

"Well, there's gratitude…" Botan grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest moodily.

Hiei cursed at her and turned his head from her again. She sighed, blowing the air upwards at the stray strands of blue that had fallen over her eyes. This was not going well at all, she thought miserably. Hiei was still the same aggressive, ungrateful and unloving little demon that he always had been, and her attempts to give him the most wonderful Valentine's Day present had failed: great.

Still, she thought, at least he was not chewing his way through her stomach in this time period. The thought brought a smile to Botan's face, and she let out a small giggle, immediately attracting Hiei's attention. His head turned with the swiftness and accuracy of a sniper taking aim, his deep red eyes glaring at her with an air of increasing frustration.

"You just never stop smiling, do you?" he sneered.

"Oh Hiei!" she sighed, rolling her eyes. "We have a choice: be happy, or be sad and moody and fester in our own misery. I choose to be happy, and you don't understand that because you always choose to… Well, I'm sure you know the rest…"

"Hn."

Botan turned her head to look back at the temple, all thoughts of going for a fly gone from her mind. She was not at all tired, but she was starting to find the idea of going back inside and enjoying a very long and very hot bath before the others starting waking up and demanding time in the bathroom very appealing.

"I was…"

Botan slowly turned her head back, finding that Hiei had crept closer to her. His expression had changed, but he was still shaking and his fists were still clenched too tightly at his sides. He opened his mouth as though to continue, but then turned his head to one side, looking away from the temple. Botan studied his profile curiously, watching almost transfixed as a bead of sweat formed just below his bandana by his ear and slowly trickled down his skin: his perfect and beautiful skin that he had so obviously inherited from his mother.

His stubborn, cold and snippy mother, who had risked the wrath of her own kind to give birth to him in the name of love.

Without her realising, her left hand acted on some unknown order from her subconscious and reached up to brush the backs of her fingers against the side of Hiei's face to wipe away the sweat there. As her fingers made contact she gasped quietly and his eyes shifted to lock onto hers. She tried to smile but struggled to make it a confident look, her fingers slipping down the side of his face. As her knuckles reached his jaw his hand shot up and caught hers, holding it in place.

Slowly, Hiei turned his head towards Botan, keeping his eyes on hers. He reached up his other hand, taking her hand in both of his. Botan's eyes flicked between Hiei's hands on hers and his staring eyes, her breath coming in shorter gasps as that bubbling feeling rushed up through her chest. He pressed his thumbs into the palm of her hand and slowly dragged outwards, opening out her hand in front of his face. Keeping his eyes on hers, he dipped his chin and lifting her hand towards his mouth, touching his lips to the tender skin on the palm of her hand just below her thumb.

Botan was stunned. Less than a minute before he had been yelling at her and calling her names, and now he was kissing her hand? And, she thought as the prickling sensation flooded her chest, he was kissing it very tenderly. It made no sense, but then she was beginning to realise that a lot of things about Hiei did not make sense to her, and in this instance she was not about to argue, because this was exactly what she had wanted.

Hiei began to pull her hand with one hand of his, his other hand sliding down her arm, pushing up the sleeve of her pyjama top with it, baring her arm. She took an awkward step towards him as he firmly pulled her hand, trailing kisses down her wrist and along the underside of her forearm as she neared him. She was forced to take another step closer, her other hand flying up and grabbing at his shoulder to steady herself. Hiei's lips left her arm then and he pulled her arm over his shoulder, reaching up his other hand to her neck, sliding his fingers under her hair and around the back of her neck. He stepped forwards and buried his face into her shoulder.

As Hiei released her arm behind his back, Botan curled her arm around and rested her hand on his back, frowning a little as she felt that he was still shaking. She wondered if he was still a little weakened from giving her some of his life energy, but the thought did not linger long as she felt the warmth of his lips against her collarbone and all logic left her mind, the tingling sensations of his touches taking over all of her senses. His hands had moved to the small of her back, and her eyes widened a little as she felt his quivering fingers gathering up the hem of her pyjama top, exposing a thin line of skin on her back to the open air.

Botan drew in a shuddering breath as Hiei's hot hands slid under her top and pressed against her bare skin, whilst he tilted his chin upwards a little, kissing his way up the side of her neck. She squirmed a little in his hold, partly because she was feeling light-headed and as though her knees would buckle at any moment and partly because she was a little nervous to be so exposed. Hiei slid one hand up the middle of her back until it rested between her shoulderblades and his other hand felt its way under the waistband of her pyjama bottoms, his hand smoothing over the curve of her hip.

"H-Hiei," she gasped, gripping her fingers into his shirt and shoulder.

He lifted his head from her neck at the sound of his name, leaning his head back to look up at her. His face was strangely neutral but his eyes looked unusually large and docile.

"I…" Botan began.

She was not even sure what she had wanted to say to him, and when words failed her she did the only other thing that seemed appropriate: she brought her lips down to his. Her gesture was a little loose and Hiei took advantage, immediately slipping his tongue into her mouth. She shied away at first, but he merely gripped his fingers into her skin and pulled her into a tighter embrace, pushing his mouth against hers and sealing his lips over hers. She let out a small, high-pitched moan and he responded with a low-pitched moan of his own that sent a shiver down her spine and made her legs go weak again. He was dominating the strength and direction of their kiss but it was not unpleasant as his previous moves on her had been, and she even dared to kiss him back with small, unsure gestures of her lips and tongue.

A gust of wind rose from behind Botan, blasting her hair forwards and over her face, and for a moment she thought she might lose her balance: but Hiei held her as tightly in place as ever. But when the wind reversed directions, pulling her hair back out behind her and blowing wisps of Hiei's hair against her nose, something began to seem amiss. Again the wind reversed direction and blasted her from behind, and Botan heard a noise that brought her out of her shared moment with Hiei as sharply as though someone had thrown a bucket-load of ice water over her to awaken her from a pleasant dream.

On instinct, Botan desperately shoved Hiei back, one hand on his shoulder the other somehow on his throat. He released her a little reluctantly, his hands momentarily stuck in her clothing, causing her to stumble from him awkwardly. As soon as she was free she turned from him, looking up into the sky towards the source of the sound that had cut into her thoughts so sharply, gasping and backing into the shelter of the trees at what she saw. From the corner of her eye she could see Hiei glowering at her, but she was far more concerned with the large shadow lowering down towards them.

Botan yelped as Puu landed on the ground in front of them his head raised and his wings spread. She desperately pushed her hair back from her face to stop it obscuring her vision as her eyes flicked about the giant bird, searching for any traces of anyone on his back. When he eventually lowered his long neck and tucked back his wings she sighed in relief, slapping a hand against her chest and smiling to herself.

"What's the matter, are you ashamed to be seen with me?"

Botan slowly turned her head from Puu to Hiei, the look on his face sending her heart into her throat: he looked ready to kill. He had stopped shaking and his face had taken on a darkness that seemed to be radiating off of him in waves.

"…What?" she asked.

"If you don't like it, why do you keep asking for it?" he growled.

"I don't understand," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know what you–"

"Don't try to hide behind your silly little ferry girl façade," he cut her off. "You know damn well what I'm talking about. You were all over me a minute ago, but the second you thought somebody might see us like that you couldn't get away from me quickly enough."

Botan paused, guilt washing over her. That was true, she thought, she had pushed him away because she had feared that Yusuke might be with Puu, and she had not wanted him to see her kissing Hiei.

"Not exactly befitting of the all-forgiving, all-loving angel you're supposed to be," Hiei said quietly.

"Hiei, I didn't mean it like that at all!" Botan gasped. "Please, you've misunderstood!"

"Do you think that I would want anyone else to know that I desire you?"

Botan paused again, her face growing hot upon hearing Hiei saying the words "I desire you"; this was becoming so confusing, she was scared to say anything else.

"Hn, well at least we can agree on something," he continued. "Though probably here and now is not ideal anyway."

Botan opened her mouth and reached out a hand as Hiei took off, though she did wonder why she had bothered, since he was long out of sight by the time she had called out his name. She sighed and let her arm fall to her side, turning her head to look up at Puu, who was casually preening his wings.

"I don't even know what that last part meant, Puu," she said. "What's a girl like me to do? Hiei is impossible to figure out. I always tell people what I'm thinking and how I'm feeling, and even if I didn't, he can read my mind! It's terribly unfair!"

Puu stared down at Botan blankly, and she found her smile again.

"Don't worry about me, Puu!" she said brightly. "I might be struggling now, but I never run out of ideas in a tough situation! I'll definitely think of something before today is over!"

* * *

"I haven't thought of anything, and half the day is over already," Botan moaned, pushing her finger down onto the ribbons in front of her.

"What?" Keiko asked, tying the ribbons over Botan's finger.

"Oh, nothing!" Botan lied, forcing a smile.

"You're weird Botan, you know that?" Keiko asked. "You can move your finger now."

Botan retrieved her finger and watched Keiko tighten the bow she had created.

"There," she said, picking up the box with a satisfied grin. "I can't wait to give this to Yusuke!"

Her grin slowly faded and her hands lowered the box to her lap.

"So that he can forget to give me something back next month," she grumbled.

"Oh don't worry Keiko," Yukina said, kneeling down beside her. "I'm sure Yusuke won't forget this time!"

"I'm pretty sure he will, actually," Keiko replied. "But that's just Yusuke for you. Did you wrap up your present for Kuwabara?"

"Oh yes, Botan helped me!" Yukina replied.

"Yeah, Botan's been really helpful today," Keiko said, turning to Botan with a sly look. "So I guess now we ought to help her."

Botan lifted her eyes from the ground, giving Keiko a questioning look.

"Don't tell me you forget to get your boyfriend a present this year, Botan," Keiko said, grinning menacingly. "Maybe you've been spending too much time with Yusuke, forgetting such an important thing like that."

"Oh Botan!" Yukina said with a sweet smile. "I didn't know you had a special friend!"

"A special friend?" Botan echoed.

In her mind she saw herself telling Hiei that he was her "special friend", and him swinging his sword through her middle, slicing her body clean in half. She laughed nervously and waved a hand in the air.

"Oh no, not me!" she said awkwardly. "I don't have a special friend, not at all!"

"Are you sure about that, Botan?" Keiko pressed.

"Absolutely I am, yes," Botan replied, feeling oddly deflated when she admitted as much.

Keiko shrugged her shoulders, the menacing look fading from her face.

"Oh well," she said. "Come on Yukina, let's go have lunch and give the boys our gifts."

Botan sighed in relief and then grinned nervously again when both Keiko and Yukina glared at her curiously.

"Come on Yukina," Keiko muttered, opening the door.

The two girls walked out and Botan slowly trailed after them, inwardly relieved that she had avoided discussing her lack of preparations for Valentine's Day. Which, she thought, was actually sickeningly ironic: she had almost died to get Hiei the perfect present, and he would never know, because in the end, she had not actually got him anything other than a few vague memories of a crazy woman who had tried to kidnap him in his infancy.

Botan groaned but again forced a smile as Yukina looked back at her with a concerned frown.

"Oh look, everybody's here!" she said cheerfully as they entered the sitting room, where the boys were waiting for them.

Botan hung back by the doorway, suppressing the slight bitterness that threatened when she considered that here she was, yet again, on Valentine's Day, with nothing to give and no-one to give it to. Keiko presented her gift to Yusuke, who was happy until he saw that it was not alcohol or edible, whereupon they began an argument. Yukina tried several times to pass her present to Kuwabara, who simply turned redder each time and told her that her presence at his side was enough of a gift to him that day. Botan was pleased for them all, and watching them did warm her heart, but when Kurama came through the doorway and paused at her side, she was glad of the distraction.

"Oh, Kurama!" she said, smiling at the pink, heart-shaped box in his hand. "I didn't know you had a special lady in your life!"

"Nor did I," Kurama flatly replied, tossing the box towards an armchair.

Botan's face twisted as she watched the box land on top of a pile of similar, unopened packages and cards.

"What's all that?" she asked.

"My classes on plant psychology and flowering plants are comprised predominantly of females," Kurama replied, sounding slightly bored. "Apparently some of them see me as rather more than a classmate."

Botan glared at the pile of boxes in disbelief.

"But…" she began. "How did they even know to send them here? Nobody knows that you're here!"

Kurama gave a small shrug.

"Did those girls follow you here?" Botan asked. "But even that's ridiculous, this place is so remote and inaccessible!"

"Well if it makes you feel any better Botan, you are not the only one here today having difficulty with these festivities," Kurama said, a hint of a smile on his face.

Botan looked up at him, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she tried to decipher what he had actually meant.

"Goodness knows it was hard enough trying to explain the concept of gift giving at Christmas," he continued. "I'm not going to even attempt to explain this sort of tradition to Hiei."

"Hiei?" Botan echoed, her voice coming out about three times as loud as she had meant it to.

"What?" Kuwabara yelped, his attention leaving Yukina for the first time since she had entered the room. "Where?"

Yusuke gave a short, dark chuckle.

"What's the matter, Botan?" he asked. "Is Hiei sulking with you because you forgot to get him a present?"

Botan started to tell Yusuke off, but Keiko was soon shouting louder at him and he was far more intimidated by an angry Keiko than an angry Botan, so Botan left them to it.

"I didn't forget anyway," she grumbled to herself.

"Of course not," Kurama said quietly.

Botan's head snapped around and she stared at him in wide-eyed horror, her face slowly turning red.

"I know what lengths you went to for Hiei," he continued, his voice too low for the others to hear him, but his words only too clear to Botan, standing at his side.

"But…" she whispered. "I didn't do anything at all. I don't think…"

"On the contrary," Kurama replied. "Surprisingly you did do one quite significant thing."

"I did?" Botan asked. "Really?"

"Yes. After probing Hiei a little more on the matter, it seems that you were the one responsible for giving him the name Hiei."

Botan pulled a sceptical face at him, but as she considered his words, they began to make more sense than she had thought possible.

"Yes, his mother said that she had not named him, and neither had those bandits he was with," she muttered, mostly thinking aloud. "Well, those bandits had named him, but it was not a name to be proud of… But it doesn't make any sense. I told them his name was Hiei, but I only did that because I already knew that his name was Hiei… Which I only already knew because I had already named him that… My head hurts!"

Kurama chuckled quietly.

"Yes, as logic goes, a time paradox is one of the most complex," he mused.

"So I named him Hiei," Botan said, smiling to herself. "That's so interesting! If only I had known that before I went back. I could have named him anything I wanted to! I could have named him Kurama! Or Shuichi! Or Yusuke! Or Kazuma! Or Muneshige! Or Jinnosuke! Or Bob!"

Kurama turned suddenly, a strand of his flowing red hair whipping over Botan's face.

"What?" he asked, his eyebrows twisting.

"Well obviously I know that I couldn't have changed history," she said, failing to understand why he was looking at her as though she had just sprouted a second head. "Because if I did, it would have already happened. There you see! I do understand all this time travel paradoxical stuff!"

Kurama nodded slowly.

"You're very strange, Botan," he concluded.

Botan was unsure if she should be flattered or offended, and as she turned from Kurama and once more saw his ridiculous pile of unopened gifts, she remembered why she had been so miserable before he had arrived. She needed another distraction, she decided; and apparently her luck was turning around, because one arrived mere seconds later. And this distraction was so distracting, it distracted the entire room.

"This is for you," a voice said harshly.

The others all stared in shock as Hiei appeared standing in-between Botan and Kurama, a bunch of red roses in one hand. He was looking at the floor and he looked more than a little flustered. The awkward silence dragged on longer than anyone in the room could stand until finally Hiei gave a short growl and thrust the flowers out to one side.

"Take them!" he snapped.

Kurama opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, but remained silent, closing one hand around the bunch of roses Hiei had pushed towards him.

"Wow, I never knew that you guys were…" Kuwabara muttered. "What about–ow!"

Kuwabara clapped his hands over his head, glaring up at Keiko, whose fist was still in the air just beyond where it had made contact with the back of his head.

"I'm not your delivery service, fox!" Hiei snapped.

Kurama let out a sigh, but said nothing else.

"She seemed to know my name," Hiei added, narrowing his eyes as he glared up at Kurama. "I wouldn't normally humour this sort of madness, but she literally attached herself to me and this was the quickest and easiest way to rid myself of her."

"These are from Sayori, a girl from one of my classes," Kurama said, sounding a little too relieved. "I think you've met her a few times, Hiei."

"I wouldn't know about that," Hiei moodily replied. "And I don't like this all of this nonsense," he added, waving a hand at Kurama's mountain of gifts.

"Don't they have Valentine's Day in demon world?" Kuwabara asked.

"If that means do we have a day where females attempt to bind males into some sort of emotional contract by the giving of needless trinkets and showy flowers then the answer is no!" Hiei replied.

"Well if you hate this so much, why don't you go "back to the darkness"?" Kuwabara returned, sounding almost as sarcastic as Hiei had.

"I intend to go back very soon," Hiei replied.

Kuwabara arched his eyebrows expectantly, but Hiei said no more.

Hiei also made no attempt to leave.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan finally manages to get a gift for Hiei, who does not appreciate or understand her gesture: but after Kurama explains the significance of her gift, Hiei has something surprising to say to Botan. **Chapter 16: The Proposal**.


	16. The Proposal

**Recap:** Meh, not much happened last time (considering it was 8.5K word chapter!). Botan recovered from her wounds suffered in the past, she shared a kiss with Hiei that ended abruptly, Botan realised she had named Hiei, and (of course) Kurama promised not to tell anyone that she had time travelled, but said that she will owe him a favour in return one day… (And it will only take him about 6 chapters to call her up on it…)

* * *

 **Chapter 16: The Proposal**

Botan was starting to feel an itch in the back of her eyeballs: the atmosphere in the sitting room was becoming far too tense, and she was still feeling a little awkward about her confrontation with Hiei earlier that morning, not to mention the fact that she had yet to get him a gift.

"Ooh, I think I hear my communicator, that must be Lord Koenma!" she lied a little too loudly to sound natural. "Excuse me, must dash!"

"I don't hear anything," Yusuke said with a frown.

"Brring-brring," Botan muttered into her hand. "There, you see! That was it again!"

Yusuke pulled a face at her but before he or anyone else could argue, she turned and fled from the room, running all the way out of the temple. As she crossed the lawn she jumped into the air and swung her oar under her legs, taking off in the one direction she could think of that might help her find some answers.

* * *

Shizuru was enjoying lunch at her favourite restaurant with a colleague from work that she had been admiring from afar for some time. The food was perfect, he was perfect and the atmosphere was – well, she could not think of a word to describe the atmosphere.

"Knock, knock!"

Shizuru jerked her head up as someone rapped a fist against her table.

"Botan!" she blurted. "Fancy seeing you here! What a really badly-timed and unwelcome surprise!"

"I need some advice!" Botan whispered loudly.

"Today is actually quite an important day," Shizuru said slowly.

"Yes, that's what I need the advice on," Botan replied. "I'm having trouble knowing how I should celebrate a day like this with a guy like Hiei."

"Yes, celebrating today with someone you like would be very important."

Shizuru jerked her head towards her date, but Botan missed her gesture entirely.

"I'm running out of time," she said. "And I have no idea what I should do. I'm really desperate, Shizuru! You wouldn't leave a little kitty all alone at a time like this, would you?"

Botan pulled her most endearing cat face and Shizuru almost plucked the whiskers out of her cheeks, bunching her fists into the tablecloth to stop herself from acting out the urge.

"Okay," she said slowly, lifting up her purse. "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do for you: I'll lend you – no, in fact I'll give you all the money I have here, and you can go across the street to that shop over there and buy whatever the hell you want for your special little guy."

Botan watched curiously as Shizuru opened out her purse and shook the contents over the table. As she began clawing through old bus tickets, lighters, loose cigarettes and notes, Botan's attention drifted to the man sat across from her.

"Ooh, hello!" she said, wiggling her fingers at him. "Are you Shizuru's new boyfriend this week?"

"This week?" he echoed, his face dropping.

"Botan just take this!" Shizuru said desperately, grabbing one of Botan's hands and stuffing a crumpled pile of notes into it with her other hand. "Spend the whole damn lot, and have a great day."

"This is quite a lot of money," Botan said, looking down at the notes in her hand. "At least I think it is. I don't know that I can repay you straight away."

"You don't have to repay me, just go out there and have a great day and leave me alone here so that I can have a great day too," Shizuru said, glaring at her warningly.

"Okay dokay!" Botan said cheerfully. "Have fun! I hope this man doesn't break your heart again."

"Get out of here, Botan!"

Botan grinned and skipped out of the restaurant, leaving Shizuru to groan and scrape her belongings off the table before flashing an awkward grin at her date.

"I guess the mental hospital lets her out sometimes," she commented.

Meanwhile, outside of the restaurant, one blue-haired ferry girl took Shizuru's advice quite literally: she crossed the street and entered the nearest shop in search of a gift for Hiei. She got about three steps into the shop before she stopped, her eyes drawn upwards and all around her, her jaw falling open in wonder.

"Can I help you, Miss?" a young woman in an apron asked her.

Botan turned to her, her face still wide-eyed and awestruck.

"This is a lovely shop, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes Miss," the assistant replied. "Are you looking for a Valentine's gift?"

"Yes, I am!" Botan replied, finding her grin again. "What would you recommend?"

"Well that depends: do you know what your crush's tastes are?"

"My what?"

The assistant frowned a little at Botan, who looked back at her with an equally confused expression.

"I need the perfect gift for a sort of unpleasant guy who doesn't like anything or anyone," Botan said slowly.

She placed her fist on the counter between herself and the assistant, slowly opening it out.

"I have that much money," she said. "What's the absolute best thing you can get me with that amount of money for that sort of guy?"

The assistant poked at the crumpled pile of notes before nodding and managing a smile.

"I think I can find you something you'll be pleased with," she said.

"Excellent!" Botan cheered, clapping her hands.

* * *

Botan's face hurt. Her hands hurt. Her whole body hurt. It was still quite cold outside, and she was especially cold because she was flying as high as she possibly could, without a scarf, hat or gloves. Her instructions from the helpful girl in the shop had been quite explicit: the box had to be kept cold at all times, otherwise the gift inside would be ruined. It was very sore flying in such conditions though, Botan thought to herself as she looked down at the pastel blue box she had tied to the blade of her oar.

She was almost back at Genkai's temple, though she could not see it yet as she was flying above the lowest level of clouds. She was really glad that she had found something for Hiei and she hoped that he had not gone back to demon world yet. Somehow she did not think that he would appreciate her going back to Mukuro's fortress and presenting him with a blue box wrapped with a curly red ribbon: it probably would not do his reputation there much good.

As Botan began to descend through the clouds she wondered what had happened at Genkai's after she had left: after all, it was the first time Hiei had been in a room with either Yukina or Kuwabara since they had all found out about Yukina's pregnancy. As far as she knew, the vine of the guilty was still lying dormant by the top of the temple steps, but that was a long way from the room the others had all been gathered in, where Kuwabara was barely a katana-length from Hiei.

Botan began to fly faster.

She rocketed towards the temple, taking a little too long to notice the black shape balanced on a tree branch by the edge of the forest. With a noise of realisation she arced around by the front of the temple and shot back towards the forest, leaping off of her oar by the base of the tree in question. She held out her hands as her oar vanished, catching the box as it fell towards her.

"Knock, knock!" she said cheerfully.

Hiei cracked open one eye to a thin slit to glare down at her. His back was rested against the trunk of the tree and his legs were spread along the branch, bent slightly at his knees. His arms were folded tightly over his broad chest, and even though he only had one eye slightly open, Botan could already see that he looked unhappy with her intrusion.

"Ta-da!" she tried, resting the box on her upturned palms and holding it up towards him.

"Kurama is inside with the others," he said, closing his eye again.

"No, silly!" Botan said, rolling her eyes. "This isn't for Kurama, it's for you!"

Hiei's eye opened again, opening a little wider this time.

"It's for you," Botan said again.

"You must be mistaken," he replied. "I don't indulge in the madness of human festivities."

"Well I do!" Botan said sharply, her patience starting to wear thin. "And I bought this especially for you, Mister Hiei!"

Hiei's other eye opened and his head turned towards her slightly. He was trying to look as aloof as always, but Botan could see the glint of curiosity in his eyes.

"Now come down here so that I can give it to you, Hiei," she added.

He smirked for a second as though she had just said something funny, but soon regained his look of disinterest, leaping down from the branch to stand in front of her.

"That's better," Botan said. "Now, here you go."

She moved her hands towards him, stopping when the box was practically under his chin. He peered down at it suspiciously, his hands in his pockets, making no attempt to accept it.

"Hiei, please," she said gently.

"As long as you understand what this means," he said quietly.

Botan was confused by his reply and wanted to ask him what he meant, but she forgot all about it when he took hold of the box. She pulled back her hands and clasped them together beside her face, grinning at him in delight.

"This is very cold," he said. "Where did it come from? It feels like it came from the ice village. Did it come from the ice village?"

"No, but it does have a sort of ice theme to it," she replied. "Just open it!"

Hiei clawed one hand over the top of the box and Botan suddenly remembered how he had opened the box of pork noodles he had eaten during their first day on the mission together.

"Carefully!" she quickly added.

He sneered at her as though he considered her suggestion to be ridiculous, but took her advice regardless, grabbing just the ribbon tied around the box and tearing it loose before flipping off the lid. His eyes doubled in size as he peered inside at the contents.

"It's a dragon!" Botan said cheerfully. "I couldn't get it in black, I'm afraid. And because it's Valentine's Day, almost everything in the shop was either red or pink. Or both. I hope you don't mind."

Hiei quirked an eyebrow at the chubby, cartoonish, S-shaped pink, red and white excuse for a dragon resting in the box in his hands.

"I don't understand," he said, looking up at Botan. "What do you expect me to do with this?"

"Eat it!" she replied, frowning at him as though he was the one saying something stupid. "It's an ice-cream cake!"

"It's a what?" he echoed.

"An ice-cream cake! It's a cake made entirely out of ice-cream!"

"Ice cream?"

"Yes."

Hiei sniffed at the box.

"It's very tasty," Botan assured him.

"You expect me to eat this?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, looking a little hurt.

"It smells like one of Kurama's weapons."

"It tastes very yummy though!"

"Don't patronise me."

"Just have a little taste. You'll love it, I promise!"

"I don't get excited over performing what is a basic necessity to sustain life."

"…What?"

"Eating is not an excuse to hop about and clap your hands like an idiot!"

Botan stopped skipping from foot to foot and put her hands behind her back.

"How do I know you haven't done something to this?" Hiei asked, eying her suspiciously. "How do I know that you haven't poisoned this?"

"Why would I want to poison you?" Botan echoed. "Really, that's very rude, Hiei! I am giving you a gift, and you are being unreasonably rude about the whole thing! You haven't even thanked me yet!"

"People don't give gifts unless there is some sort of motivation behind it," he snapped back. "Gifts are given in the expectation of receiving something in return. What do you expect of me if I do eat this?"

"I don't expect anything from you, you ungrateful pest! Although if you do feel obliged to give me something in return, maybe you could try to be a little less abrasive and obnoxious all the time!"

"You see? You do have a motivation: you're trying to charm me!"

"Just eat the cake, Hiei!"

Hiei thinned his eyes and Botan sighed out a groan of despair.

"You are impossible, I don't know why I bother," she grumbled, stepping towards him. "Look, I'll prove to you that this is just a gift and nothing more."

Botan stuck a finger into the ice-cream and scooped up a small amount before sticking it into her mouth.

"Mmm!" she said as she withdrew her finger. "It tastes yummy! And not at all poisonous!"

A hint of something Botan could not comprehend flickered across Hiei's features. He studied the ice-cream dragon for a few seconds before lifting his eyes to her again.

"Well you've proved the pink isn't poisoned," he said quietly. "What about the red bit?"

"Oh for goodness sake, Hiei!" she yelled. "Fine!"

She scooped up a lump of red ice cream with her finger, sucking it from her finger again.

"See, it's fine!" she said. "And before you ask, so is the white bit, look!"

Botan repeated her actions for the white ice-cream, and as she withdrew her finger, she could have sworn she saw a slight smile on Hiei's face.

"I'm still not convinced," he said. "You only tested small amounts. I think you need to do that again. Many times over."

"What?" Botan echoed, frowning at him in confusion.

There was definitely a small smile on his face, but Botan failed to see what was amusing him.

"Just eat it, Hiei!" she snapped, shoving a hand into the box and retrieving a spoon. "Here: eat it. Do it right now, before it melts!"

Hiei looked at the spoon, the cake and then Botan. He was still looking mildly amused despite his refusals, which was only infuriating Botan even more.

"You are so difficult," she muttered, digging the spoon into the ice-cream. "Here, eat!"

She pushed the spoon, loaded with a lump of ice-cream towards Hiei, stopping just short of his lips, which finally dropped out of their smirk.

"Come on Hiei!" she pressed.

She withdrew the spoon again, holding it up above her head.

"Here comes the big aeroplane!" she said.

"What the fu–"

Hiei's outraged demand was cut short as Botan successfully rammed the spoon into his mouth. He bit down onto it, his lips peeling back to into a sneer that showed almost every tooth in his head: but Botan merely released the spoon and smiled sweetly back at him. He turned his head to one side and spat out the spoon, contents and all, but since the ice-cram had sat inside his mouth for several seconds before he reacted, some of it had melted and been left behind on his tongue.

Hiei swallowed, and his face changed.

"It's good, isn't it?" Botan said.

She started to reach a hand towards the box but he snatched it out of her reach, glaring at her threateningly.

"I thought you might like to share it," she said.

"You said this was my gift!" he snapped back.

"It tastes sweeter when you share it with a friend," she said, waggling a finger at him.

"Liar!"

Botan blinked and staggered back a step as a blast of wind swept past her. Looking up she saw that Hiei had scaled the tree at her side, taking himself to a higher branch than before. She bit at her lower lip and winced as he wrapped one arm around the box and used his other hand to grab up fistfuls of ice-cream and shove them into his mouth, practically swallowing them whole.

"Um, Hiei?" she said, raising a hand as though she was a student in class. "You shouldn't eat ice-cream so fast."

Hiei spat something down at her that sounded like he was telling her she ought to go somewhere terrible, but his words were not quite clear, since his mouth was filled with pink cream. Botan pulled one sleeve over one hand and dragged it across her brow and down one cheek where stray drops of ice-cream had landed on her from Hiei's outburst. Maybe demons were immune to ice-cream headaches, she decided.

But barely three seconds later, she was proved wrong.

Hiei stopped eating suddenly, his fist poised in the air in front of his face, filled with ice-cream that was dripping down his wrist, his cheeks swollen and his eyes wide. He swallowed slowly before scrunching up his face and throwing down both the ice-cream in his hand and the box with the remains of Botan's gift. He grabbed his hands at his forehead and growled angrily before rocking slightly and then falling out of the tree completely.

Botan started to reach for him to break his fall, but somehow he managed to land on his feet, his eyes cracking open to glare at her.

"You did poison it, you bitch!" he spat.

"No I did not!" she yelled back defensively. "I tried to warn you: you have to eat ice-cream slowly, or else you get a headache!"

"What sort of madness is this?" he demanded.

"Just relax, it will go away!" she insisted.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because we're friends, and this is what friends do for each other!"

"What, poison each other with frozen pink piles of goo?"

"You're so ungrateful!"

"And you're so damned insufferable!"

"If you feel that way, why don't you go back to demon world?"

"I was trying to, but you stopped me!"

"No I didn't!"

Silence fell and Botan and Hiei simply glared at each other, both enraged, both breathing heavily. Slowly Hiei's hands slid from his head. His scowl eased off a little. He began looking about himself. When he eventually located the remains of his gift lying in a pile of squashed cardboard and pink puddles he turned back to glowering at Botan.

"See what you made me do?" he snapped, pointing back at the mess behind him.

"You did that yourself, mister greedy pants!" she snapped back.

"Mister…"

Hiei sighed sharply.

"You're an idiot," he grumbled.

"So are you!" Botan returned.

"I didn't ask you to give me a gift," he said.

"That's the whole point of giving gifts!" she said.

"Sometimes you really, really piss me off."

"Sometimes you leave me terribly irked!"

"You can't even get angry properly. And there's no real threat when you do."

"Some of us like being happy!"

"And some of us like to be left alone!"

"Well alrighty then!"

"Fine!"

"Good!"

They both turned their heads from each other and folded their arms, both standing that way for some time in their own stubbornness. Botan was the first to give in.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Hiei," she muttered.

He turned and started to tell her where she could shove the whole day, but he fell silent when she suddenly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He froze on the spot, so taken aback by her action he could barely even think let alone react. She started to walk off and he turned to yell something after her, but found words failing him. Instead he watched her go, torn between the urge to wipe the wet remains of her gesture off of his face and the urge to run after her and show her how she ought to kiss someone.

"Everything alright?"

Hiei cursed loudly, his voice echoing around the trees, and he spun around, finding Kurama by the splat that was his gift from Botan.

"Where did you come from?" Hiei demanded, inwardly cursing himself for not sensing the fox's approach.

"I see I'm not the only one who prospered this Valentine's Day," Kurama said, poking a toe at the box by his feet.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hiei moodily replied, turning away from him.

"Hiei?"

"What?"

"Hiei?"

"What?!"

"Hiei, turn around and face me."

Hiei stiffened but did not move.

"Turn around, Hiei," Kurama said, his voice lower and almost threatening. "Or I will come around and look at you myself."

"Stop wasting my time!" Hiei snapped.

"Why won't you look at me?" Kurama asked.

"Because you're too ugly," Hiei replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I think you won't look at me because you're blushing."

"What?"

Hiei's head snapped around and he fixed his eyes onto Kurama, who slowly developed an infuriatingly sympathetic smile.

"And it seems I'm right," he said quietly.

"I am not "blushing" you fool!" Hiei snarled. "I'm just… Very pissed off!"

"I see," Kurama calmly replied. "You're not blushing."

"No, I'm damn well not!"

"You're just a little red from the intensity of your passion."

"Yes, that's–wait, what?"

Kurama smiled again and Hiei dropped a hand to his sword, exposing the blade with a flick of his thumb.

"Hiei, Botan went to a lot of effort to get you a nice gift," Kurama said, not so much as glancing at the shining metal exposed by Hiei's hip.

"I didn't ask her to do that," Hiei replied.

"She didn't do it because she thought you wanted her to," Kurama explained. "She did it for the same reasons that Keiko gave a gift to Yusuke and Yukina gave a gift to Kuwabara–"

"Leave my sister out of this!"

"–simply because she wanted to show you that she likes you."

"Why would she like me?"

"Well that's a loaded question…"

Hiei relaxed his thumb and his sword slid back into its sheath.

"What do mean "like"?" he asked.

"I mean she likes you in a romantic way, Hiei," Kurama frankly replied.

Hiei tensed at first, but then found his smile.

"I thought this was some sort of game she was playing," he muttered.

"No," Kurama replied.

"This gift is the way human females indicate their interest in a male?"

"Yes."

"Perfect. I thought I'd never get the message across. I've been watching her, I've been following her and I've tried everything to let her know what my intentions are, but this is even better. Now I know that I can have her any time I damn well want."

Kurama gave Hiei a withering look, but Hiei failed to notice it, his eyes too caught up in a scheming look.

"Hiei, if you really have been watching her and following her and trying to convey how much you want to be with her, that suggests to me that you are in love with her," Kurama said.

"This is not love, you idiot!" Hiei snapped.

"It's infatuation."

"Almost. It's obsession."

"Obsession?"

"Yes, obsession. But now I know I can have her it will soon be over."

Kurama made a small noise of amusement and Hiei's face darkened over again.

"Does this amuse you, fox?" he asked. "I'm not proud of desiring a stupid, flighty, naïve ferry girl, you know!"

"It's not the circumstances that amuse me Hiei, but rather your attitude towards them," Kurama replied. "Or perhaps I should say your downright denial of the facts."

"What are you talking about now?"

"When I suggested that you were in love with Botan, you insisted that what you are experiencing is not love, but obsession."

"It is obsession!"

"You would rather be obsessed with a woman than in love with her?"

"Wouldn't you?"

Kurama's face twitched slightly and Hiei growled at him angrily.

"I was just curious," Kurama said, holding up his hands to indicate that he was not looking for a fight. "Love is not such a terrible concept, you know. It comes in many different forms, and it isn't always something ridiculous."

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you, Kurama," Hiei said flatly.

"For example," Kurama continued, ignoring Hiei's response. "You clearly love Yukina, and that's not something ridiculous."

Hiei clenched his fists at his sides but said nothing.

"Would it really be so bad to love someone else too?" Kurama asked.

"You're really pushing your luck," Hiei spat back. "I haven't forgotten about your little plant trick."

"Neither have I," Kurama said with a small shrug. "That also proved the point I am trying to make. You clearly have feelings for Botan."

"I have feelings for her," Hiei said, smirking darkly. "I feel like I want to tear off her clothes with my teeth and claim every part of her body."

"I don't think it's that simple."

"Well you don't know what you're talking about. You've been living as a human for far too long."

"My choices in regards to love are far more restricted than yours, Hiei. As long as I am in this body, I am not being true to myself. I wouldn't expect a human to understand what I really am, and I doubt any demon would appreciate my decision to remain this way. But I am contented. My life is not without love or companionship because I have good friends and a loving family. Your life, however, is lacking, but only because of your own stubbornness."

"You really are pushing your luck with me today, Kurama."

"I just want to be sure that you know what you're doing. I consider you a good friend Hiei, but I am also close to Botan. She is an innocent and almost as gentle as your own sister. I would not like to see her hurt."

"First of all, don't you dare compare that ditzy ferry girl to my sister! And secondly, what concern is she of yours?"

"She's a nice girl, Hiei. She's forgiving, she's kind, she's tolerant – and she proved that today when she gave you a gift that you virtually threw back in her face–"

"Were you watching the whole time?"

"–and you've already demonstrated that you find her attractive. I don't see what the problem is."

"Well if you like her so damn much, why don't you have her?"

"Maybe I will."

Hiei stopped breathing, and his eyes grew large.

"You said one night was all you wanted, yes?" Kurama continued. "So I'll let you have tonight to do what you will or won't. After that I'll assume that she's fair game."

"What?" Hiei hissed.

"You said you're not in love with her and you only need one night with her," Kurama repeated. "So have your one night. After that, it's not your concern what she does."

"You can't be serious? You would… Go in there after I'd already…?"

"Botan understands my predicament, my dual personas. She's very easy to talk to, I find her pleasant outlook very calming and welcome. And you said yourself, she is very pretty."

Hiei's face twitched through several expressions of displeasure and Kurama smiled.

"Unless of course you think that you need more than one night with her?"

Hiei looked down at his right hand, clenching and unclenching his fist in thought. The bandages he wore were stained from the ice-cream and his fingers were sticky. He pursed his lips together and realised that they felt sticky too: great, he thought, he probably had pink stickiness all over his face too.

"Unless you intend to keep her for yourself?"

Hiei lifted his eyes, locking them onto Kurama, who was still wearing that mild yet superior smile.

"It's just a long-standing obsession that I haven't been able to satisfy yet," he said darkly. "I have no interest in "keeping her". There is no place in demon world for her, and no place in spirit world for me. And five minutes in her company infuriates me, I couldn't stomach a lifetime with her. I don't need to pair myself off with one woman like some do, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't choose that one… Maybe Mukuro, but not before I get strong enough to defeat the bitch. I couldn't be with a woman who thought she was better than me."

Kurama's smile had vanished.

"I won't tell you what to do Hiei–"

"That's all you've been doing this entire conversation!"

"–but please don't hurt Botan. You'll upset more than the girl herself if you do. And I don't think I need to explain to you again how spirit world would react if you did something completely reckless with one of their ferry girls."

"I am a reckless soul, it's how I live my life. It always has been and it always will be."

"I've said what I needed to."

"Then you should go."

Hiei and Kurama stared at each other for a few moments longer before both turning in opposite directions and moving off, one at a casual stroll the other at break-neck speed.

* * *

Botan hesitated, the sight before her making her wonder if going back to spirit world had been such a great idea. After dealing with Hiei's ungratefulness and general bitterness she had gone back into the temple to find Yusuke and Keiko sharing a slightly too passionate kiss in a cupboard under the stairs and Kuwabara on his knees in front of Yukina reading her poetry – which, judging by how terrible it had sounded, had possibly been his own. She wanted to get as far away from the sentimentality as possible and so had taken herself back to spirit world: but inside Koenma's office she found Ayame giving a gift to Koenma.

"Botan!" Koenma yelped.

"Hello, Sir," she replied.

"Do you know what day it is today?" he asked.

"Yes Sir, it's Valentine's Day."

"So where's my gift from you? All my other ferry girls remembered!"

Botan sighed quietly.

"You never remember," Koenma grumbled.

"I'm sorry Sir, I was busy," Botan replied.

Koenma nodded.

"You're looking a lot better now though," he said. "I thought we'd lost you. It was close. It's a good thing Hiei was there."

Botan rolled her eyes.

"He's a strange one, but we sure can count on him in a fix," Koenma continued. "And now although I'm glad to see you up and walking about and back to your old self, I do wonder what you're doing here, Botan."

Botan arched her eyebrows.

"The mission is over, I'm ready to go back to work ferrying souls, Lord Koenma," she said.

"You should take a few days to recover," Koenma said, waving a hand at her as though ushering her back out of his office. "Go and enjoy Valentine's Day."

"You're giving me time off?" Botan asked in disbelief. "You never give me time off!"

"Well I'm giving you time off now."

"But I don't want time off! I want to go back to work!"

"Nonsense! Go and enjoy yourself! Take the ogre out to dinner or something."

Botan turned to George, who was standing by Koenma's desk as reliably as ever. He grinned bashfully and Botan felt her stomach sink. When nothing intelligent came to her mind she turned on her heel and left the office again, slowly losing herself amongst the chaos of ferry girls and ogres in the hallways beyond.

"Hey there, big blue!"

Botan stopped short, looking about herself. She did not see anyone that appeared to be addressing her, but she could have sworn the voice that had spoken had been right beside her.

"Hey, down here, tall and lonesome!"

Botan looked down, blinking repeatedly before recognition set in. A short, green-haired ferry girl was grinning up at her amusedly, and although it had been many years since they had last crossed paths, Botan recognised her as the ferry girl who had coached her during her early days in the job.

"Izumi!" Botan greeted her. "How are you?"

"A lot better than you, by the looks of it," Izumi replied. "It's not like you to look so miserable. Did Lord Koenma just chew you out about something?"

Botan started to make false niceties, but as she also remembered that Izumi was the one who had warned her about falling in love with a kindred soul she gave up trying to cover up her sadness.

"Izumi, I have sympathy for the devil syndrome," she confessed.

Izumi nodded and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"It happens to us all at least once," she said. "But you must have coped, you don't have the soul with you any more."

"It's not a soul I fell in lo… He's still alive."

Izumi looked about herself as though she was afraid that someone else might have heard what Botan had just said.

"You showed yourself to a human?" she asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"No, I have the ability to take a human body when I'm in the living world, I was given that to help me work as assistant to the spirit detective," Botan explained.

"You fell in love with a living spirit detective?" Izumi echoed. "Which one: the recluse, the schizophrenic or the mazoku?"

"The…"

Botan paused, Izumi's words battering around her mind.

"You make it sound like our spirit detectives were all deranged," she concluded.

"They were," Izumi said with a shrug. "Though I suppose they needed to be to take the job in the first place, right?"

"That seems like a very morbid way of looking at things…"

"So which is it? Come on blue, I'm busy, I can't stop long."

"Oh I'm not… I wasn't talking about a spirit detective, I was talking about a demon."

"You're in love with a demon?"

Botan saw something so amazing, she had never even imagined what it might have looked like before: every ogre and ferry girl stopped what he or she was doing and fell silent. She had seen them all part and pause when she had walked through them in her wet clothing, but this was a positive and absolute full stop to the mayhem.

Botan slowly turned her head in both directions, finding every pair of eyes on her.

"It's Botan," she heard a voice whisper.

"She spends a lot of time with demons," another one whispered.

"She's strange."

"It's probably that mazoku, the Urameshi boy."

Botan felt Izumi grab her arm and she made no complaint when the smaller ferry girl began dragging her away from the crowds towards the nearest exit.

"I'm sorry I shouted that out," Izumi said once they were outside the temple. "But really, Botan, what are you thinking?"

"I don't know," Botan moaned. "I just came here to get away from it all, but Lord Koenma has ordered me to go back to the living world and enjoy myself!"

"With the demon?"

"I don't know! I don't know what to do! I don't even know how I really feel about him, he's such a nasty, angry, rude… And he's very ungrateful!"

"He's a demon, Botan. Generally speaking, demons are nasty, angry, rude and ungrateful. They are not loving creatures. You do understand that, don't you?"

"But… The way he looks at his sister, I know he knows how to love…"

Izumi pulled a face of concern, glancing up at the sky.

"Look blue, I've got to go," she said, squeezing Botan's arm. "Don't do anything until I get back. We'll talk more then."

Botan nodded and Izumi leapt onto her oar, offering Botan one last reassuring smile before taking off into the sky. Botan watched her go until she was out of sight before summoning her own trusty oar and half-heartedly shuffling onto it. She hoped that she could talk to Izumi about her troubles, but until Izumi was finished with her duties, Botan had no other choice but to go back to the living world.

* * *

After a slow flight with lots of unnecessary diversions, Botan brought herself back to Genkai's temple. The sun was setting as she arrived, a red half circle burning into the horizon. The sky was clear and already some stars were visible. It was cold, but not unbearably so, though Botan suspected that once the sun disappeared, the temperature would drop a little further and being outside flying around in the sky would be far less pleasant.

Botan hoped that everyone had gone to bed already. That was a terrible thing to think, she scolded herself, but it was what she wanted. She did not want to have to face Yusuke and Kuwabara and their jokes about her gift to Hiei – and she was sure that they would have somehow found out by then, so avoiding it would be impossible. She aimed herself towards the window in the roof in the hope that Yukina was already in bed there, and she could simply enter the temple through the window and go straight to bed. She was not in the least bit tired – though she thought that she ought to be after what she had been through the day before – but she was cold and the thought of snuggling into bed seemed infinitely appealing by then.

Thankfully Valentine's Day was over for another year, she thought to herself.

Botan landed noiselessly on the roof a short way below the window, banishing her oar and edging up to the window to peer inside. She smiled her first genuine smile in hours when she saw Yukina cuddled up asleep in her bed, a small, sweet, innocent smile barely gracing her lips. Botan sighed and raised one hand above the glass to knock. She felt a little guilty about waking Yukina up, but at least this way she would avoid dealing with the others.

Botan paused just before her knuckles reached the glass, her heart pounding hard inside her chest as she saw something from the corner of one eye. Slowly, she turned her head towards it, withdrawing her hand from the window.

By one side of the window was a small figure, curled around like a dog, using his own crossed forearms as a pillow.

Botan slowly sat back onto her heels. This was quite unexpected. She had expected Hiei to go back to demon world, or at least to go and sleep in a tree somewhere. Why was he sleeping outside Yukina's bedroom window? Botan then began to sneer at Hiei as she realised what must be happening: Hiei had yet to confront Yukina since she had announced her pregnancy, and this was probably his repressed way of showing that he cared. He was probably concerned for her, proud of her and desperate to be a part of what she was going through, but rather than go and tell her who he really was, rather than return her hirui stone and show her his, rather than do anything remotely normal, Hiei chose to spy on her from the shadows.

Botan sighed quietly. Now she was in quite a pickle. The window was high, and in order to reach it to open it, little Yukina would have to stand on a chair. Whilst that was not too much of a problem, it did mean that she would be on eye-level with the three-eyed demon sleeping on the roof, and she was bound to wonder why he was sleeping outside of her room. Or, perhaps even worse, Yukina would not open the window herself. Rather she would ask Kuwabara to do it, since he was the tallest person in the house, and he was making such a fuss over her and refusing to let her do anything remotely physically strenuous lately, and then Kuwabara would find Hiei lying outside of the room, and that would really complicate matters. Botan suspected that Kuwabara already had ill feelings towards Hiei after what had happened with the vine of the guilty. There was only two logical explanations for Hiei getting that angry at Kuwabara: either he was Yukina's brother or Yukina's lover, and since Kuwabara was convinced that Yukina's brother was an ice demon with blue-green hair and a soft disposition like Yukina, Kuwabara would assume the latter.

Botan sighed again. She was probably going to have to sleep on the roof herself, or else go through the front door and risk Yusuke's insolence.

"Oh Hiei," she groaned under her breath. "Why can't you just talk to her instead of hiding out here and spying on her like a voyeur?"

"I'm not spying on Yukina," Hiei replied, his eyes suddenly open.

Botan yelped and hurriedly clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming out in her shock and waking Yukina.

"I was waiting here for you," he continued. "I knew you'd come back eventually."

Botan lowered her hands and relaxed her shoulders.

"Well I… You were waiting for me?"

He smirked at her response, pushing himself up into a sitting position, crossing his legs in front of himself.

"You gave me a gift earlier today, and I understand that means something in this world," he said.

Botan swallowed awkwardly. There was nothing threatening about his words or his body language, but there was something just slightly sinister in his tone that made her uncomfortable.

"And I never got the chance to show my gratitude," he continued.

Now Botan was worried.

"But the day isn't over yet."

Botan glanced at the setting sun, which was almost as red as Hiei's eyes.

"I thought…" she began, turning her attention back to Hiei, the look in his eyes momentarily robbing her of her voice. "I thought that you said you didn't care for human festivities."

"I've decided that I quite like this one," he replied.

Botan narrowed her eyes sceptically.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked.

"The night is coming down, and as I look at you I fall under your spell."

Botan gripped at the window-frame to stop herself from falling off the roof altogether. She had hoped that when she gave Hiei a gift on Valentine's Day he might be grateful and he might even stop calling her nasty names: but she had not expected him to suddenly become romantic. This was more like the Hiei she had imagined she might manage to create if she had succeeded in returning baby Hiei to his mother: and for a brief moment she wondered if she had dreamed the last twenty-four hours, and that this was the new reality she had created after her excursion to the past.

"In the face of such temptation I know that I should stand and fight," he continued. "And I'm sure that, before long, this will be my one great regret."

Botan was growing increasingly confused and she could not keep the questioning look from her face: but the softened tone of his voice and the intensity in his eyes was creating havoc inside her, her heart racing, her chest flooding with bubbles and a wanton desire to feel his strong, warm hands on every part of her body was taking over.

"Give me your hand," he said quietly.

Hiei held out his bandaged hand towards her, palm upturned. He was still sitting cross-legged and the look on his face was unchanged. Botan slowly reached a hand towards him, frightened about what might happen next but equally curious and desirous to know what he had planned. She slid her hand into his and he closed his fingers over hers, his smirk widening a little, his lips parting slightly to show his teeth.

"Tonight I am going to take you on a journey," he said.

"Where are we going?" she asked, feeling braver at last.

"I am going to lead you down the slow road to your ruin," he replied, standing up.

Botan let him pull her to her feet, inwardly thinking that his last few words had not sounded quite so romantic as his earlier statements had.

"Hn," he continued, his smile widening again but becoming no less sinister. "You may remember me as your best kept secret and your biggest mistake, but tonight, ferry girl, you will be my downfall."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Well no prizes for guessing what happens in the next chapter… Hiei and Botan share a romantic moment on the beach where they both discover something about each other that neither expected. Later, Botan is forced to make a painful confession to Koenma. **Chapter 17: The Downfall.**


	17. The Downfall

**A/N:** **This chapter is not for the faint of heart, it is a tad jarring. Feel free to hate me once you've read it through.**

 **Recap:** Botan gave Hiei a (stupid, let's be honest) Valentine's Day gift, which, after much explanation from Kurama, he finally understood the significance of, and then decided to show Botan his gratitude in the only way he knew how…

* * *

 **Chapter 17: The Downfall**

 _And when faced with temptation,  
You know a man should stand and fight  
But you will be my downfall tonight  
Be my downfall  
Be my great regret  
Be the one girl  
That I'll never forget  
Be my undoing  
Be my slow road to ruin  
Tonight  
(Be My Downfall, Del Amitri)_

"I am going to lead you down the slow road to your ruin," Hiei said, standing up.

Botan let him pull her to her feet, inwardly thinking that his last few words had not sounded quite so romantic as his earlier statements had.

"Hn," he continued, his smile widening again but becoming no less sinister. "You may remember me as your best kept secret and your biggest mistake, but tonight, ferry girl, you will be my downfall."

"…What?" Botan asked, searching his eyes for any clue to his true meaning, which, frankly, was lost on her.

"This is what you wanted, isn't it?" he asked. "This is what you've been asking for ever since you came to demon world looking for me that first night of this pointless mission."

Botan shook her head, feeling increasingly confused and more than a little afraid: and, inexplicably, still a little excited and thrilled by the feeling of him holding her hand.

"You've been playing coy for long enough, woman," Hiei said, his voice suddenly lower and his eyes darkened over a little. "You blatantly made an advance on me today, you can drop the act now."

Botan tried to pull her hand from his but he tightened his grip and tugged her arm forwards. She stumbled, tripping over the window-frame, staring down at Yukina in blind panic as one of her feet came down towards the middle of the glass. She bit back a cry of alarm as her body was suddenly yanked clear of the window, spinning around in the air until she was looking at an upside-down view of the roof and land beyond. She wriggled a little and felt something clamping around the backs of her knees, then realising that Hiei had somehow managed to throw her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, being mindful to keep her voice quiet to avoid waking Yukina.

"Something I should have done a long time ago," Hiei replied.

"I don't understand!" Botan wailed.

"Oh, you'll understand plenty soon enough."

Botan was unable to hold in a scream as he took off running with her, though she was sure that in the time that it took for her to draw a breath and start her cry she was already too far away for Yukina to have heard her anyway. And by the time she had finished her cry Hiei had stopped. He leaned forwards and dropped her a little unceremoniously onto the ground, standing over her and grinning down at her, his eyes and teeth almost glowing in the low light levels.

"Hiei?" Botan said weakly, looking about herself. "What… Where…?"

For reasons she would probably never understand, Hiei had taken her to the beach by the edge of Genkai's land. With the setting sun in the distance and the lapping waves of the water it ought to have been romantic, but Botan's memories of that beach involved Hiei tripping her up and kissing her roughly in order to take back his hiruiseki from her. She pushed herself up onto her elbows as she finished her survey of her surroundings, her eyes landing back on Hiei at the exact moment that he tossed aside his coat and scarf. He dropped to his knees by her feet and she instinctively shuffled back a little, her legs bending and her heels digging into the sand as she tried to put some distance between them. He merely made an amused "hn" at her actions, grabbing a hand around each of her ankles and tugging sharply towards himself. She let out a short scream of shock as her body slid effortlessly forwards over the sand, only stopping when the underside of her thighs collided with Hiei's knees.

"Hiei," she said again. "This is very… Open."

He ignored her words, his hands sliding from her ankles up her legs.

"I just…" she tried again. "I'm not sure I… I mean I…"

His hands moved past her knees and began travelling up her thighs.

"I should have…" she said. "I mean I didn't… I…"

His hands smoothed around the curve of her hips, his fingers tangling into her sweater and pushing it up. She gasped as his warm hands came into contact with her skin at her sides, continuing their journey upwards until her armpits stopped his actions. He had bunched the material of her sweater up enough to expose her midriff to the cold night air, something she was not entirely sure she was happy with.

"I think we should–oh God!"

Botan groaned out the last part as Hiei leaned forwards and kissed her just above her navel. She was completely immobilised by the rush in her chest that left her breathless. He began kissing his way up her body and she suddenly found her hands in his hair, acting on some sort of will of their own.

"Lift your arms," he grunted into her abdomen.

"What?" she asked, frowning down at him.

"Lift your arms," he said again, lifting his head to look directly at her.

She continued to look at him curiously and he took on a slightly impatient look, grabbing his hands into her sweater and pushing it upwards. She screamed and grabbed his wrists, shaking her head.

"You can't do that!" she gasped, looking about herself in fear. "If you take my sweater off you'll…"

"Yes?" he pressed, his face darkening further.

"You'll see my underwear!" she hissed.

"That would be the point of taking off your clothes," he bluntly replied, pulling her up a little by her sweater.

Botan made to protest, but Hiei somehow managed to pull her sweater up over her head. Once the material had passed over her eyes she glared at him in disbelief at his blatant disregard to her earlier protest, but he merely grinned at her, pushing the material up until it was fully clear of her body and upper arms. He then lowered himself towards her again. She lifted her hands to reach for him, then realising that he had stopped removing her sweater by her elbows, leaving the lower half of her arms and her hands caught up in the material above her head. She squeaked indignantly and struggled a little to free herself, but stopped short as he gripped his hands around her biceps and pinned her arms down, lowering his head to her ear.

"I always knew I'd have to torture you one day for that big mouth of yours," he growled into her ear. "I just didn't know whether you'd be screaming with pain or pleasure. Lucky for you it looks like it will be the latter."

As far from romantic as his words were, Botan closed her eyes and let herself melt into the sound of his voice and the feeling of his breath on her skin. She barely cared what he said any more, she just knew that she did not want him to stop what he was doing: though she did wish that he had taken her somewhere a little more secluded and ideally indoors.

But again she forgot all about his unusual choices as he dragged his hands down her arms and over the curve of her breasts. Her hands were still tangled in her sweater but she did not even care any more. She arched her back, pushing her chest into the warmth of his hands, which slid all the way down to the waistband of her jeans, his fingers curling around her clothing and fumbling with the fastenings. He grunted a small noise of impatience and Botan's eyes opened, the worry that he might tear her clothes apart entering her mind. She tried to free her hands to help him but she was stuck fast, and in a matter of seconds Hiei had solved his problem without her and was easing her jeans down her hips.

Botan whimpered slightly in curiosity and mild fear when Hiei lifted up her legs, his intentions not immediately clear. But despite her apprehension she trusted him, and she soon saw his reasoning as he eased her jeans down to her ankles, pulling them over each of her feet, taking her shoes with them. When he lowered her legs down to the sand again, placing one either side of his own, she was sure she could feel every grain of sand, as though something had happened to heighten her sensory awareness. She closed her eyes and pushed her heels into the ground, delighting in the slightly abrasive feeling of the sand moving against her skin.

When Botan opened her eyes again, Hiei was kneeled above her and in the process of removing his vest. He flung it in the same general direction he had flung her jeans before leaning over her and pulling her sweater from her arms, freeing them once more. Again he tossed her clothes aside and then he took hold of her upper arms, lifting her into a sitting position in front of him. With her sitting and him on his knees the top of her head was level with his shoulders. He reached his hands around to the back of her head and she hissed, closing her eyes as he tugged at her hair. To her surprise he withdrew his hands for a second before moving them back, his fingers moving more carefully, barely pulling at her hair at all. When he had finished Botan felt her hair falling down around her shoulders, where it sat in rebellious, tousled waves of blue, proof that she had been flying around too much that day.

"Touch me."

Botan slowly lifted her eyes to Hiei's at his words, frowning slightly as she looked at him, unsure what exactly he expected of her. He watched her for a moment before reaching down and grabbing a hand around each of her wrists. He brought her hands up to his now bared chest, pressing her hands against himself before letting his own hands drop to his sides. Botan slowly lowered her eyes again, looking at her own hands against his chest, the sight of her hands touching him sending another rush of feeling through her. She pushed her fingertips into his skin experimentally, amazing herself at the firmness of his body. His skin was surprisingly soft, but it was pulled tightly over every swell of muscle. She splayed her fingers apart and pressed her palms against him, releasing a small moan as the unending warmth of his body passed into her skin.

Hiei touched one hand to the back of her head, his fingers knitting into her hair. Botan took a deep breath and slid her hands downwards, letting her fingers dance over every detail of his chest and abdomen before sliding her hands around his waist and up his back, moving her head towards his body. She tensed a little before gently placing a kiss over his heart, marvelling at the warmth of his skin against her lips. She took a breath before moving in again, pressing her lips harder against him, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of his heartbeat. Giving in completely to her own desires she opened her lips against him and touched her tongue to his skin, a need to taste him driving her to tilt her chin upwards, dragging her tongue over the curve of his pectoral.

Botan paused. She could no longer hear or feel Hiei's heartbeat – which, she supposed, was not unreasonable, since a demon's heartbeat was said to be irregular and indeed infrequent – but the sound and sensation had been replaced by something else, something that made no sense. Hiei's entire upper body was quivering in her arms and the noise coming from his lips above her head was starting to make her worry: it was not a noise that she had ever heard Hiei make, nor was it even one that she had ever expected to hear from him.

He was laughing.

Botan slowly pulled back from Hiei, looking up at him with wide eyes of worry and confusion. His eyes were closed and his head was thrown back, and he was, undeniably, laughing. In fact, he was laughing louder and harder with every passing second, his body juddering in her arms from the force of his amusement.

"Hiei?" she said softly.

He opened his eyes and looked down at her, his laughter stopping but the manic grin that had accompanied it remaining plastered across his face.

"You act so angelic and unaffected, but the truth of the matter is, you want this just as badly as I do," he said.

Botan's frown deepened and Hiei's grin widened.

"Even now you're too afraid to admit it," he said. "I don't even need to use my jagan to know that you've thought about this every bit as much as I have."

Botan opened her mouth to ask him exactly what he meant but before she could talk he pressed a thumb against her lips, curling his fingers under her chin and lifting her head up to look her fully in the eye.

"You don't have to say a word," he said, pausing to let out another short bark of laughter. "I can see it in your eyes, I can feel it in your touch and I can smell it radiating off of you. But don't worry, I'm going to give it to you tonight."

Botan cried out as he put his hands onto her shoulders and shoved her roughly back into the sand. He dropped himself on top of her a little too heavily, almost winding her under his weight, leaving her at war with her own feelings as his words and actions made her mind cautious and hesitant but the feeling of his intensely hot and hard chest pressed against her bare skin left her body hungering for more.

"Hn, I don't blame you for being you," he whispered into her ear, his hands pinning her wrists down at either side of her head as he spoke. "It's all part of being a ferry girl, I suppose. But you can't blame me for despising it. It's so false and superficial."

"What?" Botan whimpered.

Hiei lifted his hands from her wrists and he began sliding them between her back and the ground.

"For all your silly little ideas about flowers and romance, you want exactly the same thing as me," he growled, the vibration of his words passing through his chest to hers. "You just want a good hard fuck."

Botan felt something inside of her go cold. Hiei grabbed one hand around the fastening of her bra in the middle of her back, his head still by her ear. He started to laugh again, his body shaking against hers: but the feeling of his skin against hers was no longer a pleasant one for Botan. The buzzing in her chest had sunk, becoming a cold weight in the pit of her stomach. She brought her left hand around, grabbing it tightly into the hair at the back of Hiei's head, being sure to tug it back as suddenly and harshly as she possibly could to get his attention. His laughter stopped in a grunt and he lifted his head to look her in the eye.

"What did you just say?" she asked: she had to be sure.

He smiled at her, keeping one hand gripped around her bra and bringing the other up to pull her hand from his hair.

"You just want a good hard fuck, don't you, woman?" he said.

Botan was not sure what hurt the worst: his words or the fact that he had looked her in the eye and smiled as he had spoken them. She let him pull her left hand from his hair because her right hand had found what it had been feeling for while she waited for him to confirm his feelings. Closing her fingers around the splintered piece of stick at her side, Botan brought her hand up and around sharply, driving the sharp end into Hiei's forehead. She used enough force to pierce through his bandana, and the cross-eyed look of agony on his face followed shortly by the yell that erupted from his throat told her she had achieved the desired results.

Botan quickly pushed Hiei off of her in his moment of pained confusion and scrambled to her feet, running towards her jeans. She managed two steps before Hiei grabbed one of her ankles, almost pulling her off of her feet.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.

He sounded seriously irate. She was too frightened to even look back at him.

"Let me go!" she cried, tugging at her leg.

Of course her efforts were futile, since his strength was ridiculously beyond her own.

"You don't think you can just do something like that and get away with it, do you?" he snarled.

"Let me go, you bastard!"

Hiei's hand opened and Botan stumbled forwards, landing on her hands and knees. She hurriedly flipped over and scrambled back, glaring over at Hiei. As their eyes met, Botan could not be sure which of them seemed more confused. She was frankly shocked that he had released her, but he looked absolutely horrified; which was quite something considering he had yet to dislodge the stick that she had rammed into his jagan eye, and already she could see blood soaking into the fabric of his bandana. They both stared at each other in confused disbelief for several seconds until finally Botan recovered her senses, pushing herself up to her feet.

"I don't understand you," she spat out bitterly.

"At least we agree on one thing," he grumbled, grabbing the stick and yanking it out of his head.

"You see? I don't even understand that!" Botan yelled. "What do you mean when you say we agree on this? Do we agree that you make no sense, or are you saying that you don't understand me?"

Hiei glared up at her, his eyes slowly thinning.

"Just shut-up and get back down here," he said quietly. "I'll overlook this," he added, pointing at the bloody stain on his head, "provided that you get back down here right now."

"Absolutely no way, Hiei," she said, trying to keep her voice steady despite her mounting anger, fear and hurt. "I don't want to be some little outlet for your… Needs. Maybe you don't have any more respect for me than that, but I do!"

"You have self-respect?" he snapped, punching a fist into the sand. "Don't make me laugh! You're the most ridiculous, pointless creature I've ever known!"

"I don't believe you… I thought I was in love with you."

"What?"

"I know! How ridiculous is that! Hey, guess what, mister emotionless? Looks like we agree on something else: me loving you is a ridiculous idea!"

"Damn right it is!"

Botan swallowed hard, her chest heaving and her heart racing. Ahead of her Hiei got to his feet, pulling the bandana from his forehead. She winced as she saw that his jagan was tightly shut, blood smeared around one edge of it. He touched his fingers tentatively to the upper lid of his third eye and Botan felt her anger melt. She had not realised that she had used so much force in her attack, and suddenly she realised that she had called Hiei a bastard: she had never spoken that word out loud before, and now she had just used it as an insult against a man who had, in a sense, been born one, making her choice of words doubly spiteful.

"Oh goodness…" she whispered.

Hiei's eyes snapped onto hers at the sound of her voice.

"Oh Hiei, I'm so sorry," she said, starting towards him. "You just frightened me, I should never have… I can heal that for you–"

"Stop," he cut her off.

She obediently stopped a few feet away from him, watching him worriedly.

"You've got two choices, woman," he said quietly. "Either you get back down on the ground, or you get out of my sight, and don't ever let me see you again."

Botan's face slowly contorted as her anger remained dead, her sympathy faded and her fear diminished, leaving only a lasting feeling of deep hurt behind.

"I was growing very fond of you," she said faintly. "I thought I understood you."

"Hn, ridiculous," he spat. "Only an idiot would "grow fond" of me, and only a fool would still be standing there trying to reason with me. Don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're a powerless ferry girl."

Botan stopped breathing as she saw Hiei's right hand start to glow, the light from it creating jagged shadows across his face in the increasing levels of darkness around them.

"Get back down here or get out of my sight," he said again. "If you don't make up your mind soon, I will kill you, Botan."

Botan raised one hand, her oar appearing in her hand. She gave one last small shake of her head before hopping onto her oar and flying away from the beach and away from Hiei as fast as she could. On instinct she took herself back to Genkai's temple, only coming to her senses as she neared the front entrance: she could hardly go walking in past Yusuke, Kuwabara and the others in nothing but her underwear, she thought miserably.

She hesitated, hovering in the air above the entranceway. She was started to hyperventilate. She looked back over her shoulder, the idea occurring to her that Hiei might be following. Her oar vanished and she fell to the ground hard, though she barely cared. She was numb. She could only think of one thing: she had to get away.

She got up and hurried into the temple, sneaking along darkened corridors until she reached the room she had been sharing with Yukina. She then slipped inside and retrieved her trusty pink kimono from the wardrobe there. She hurriedly pulled it on, not bothering to arrange it properly or even to tie her obi correctly before running back out of the room. She kept running until she was outside again, where she gladly took off on her oar again.

Within minutes Botan was back in spirit world, flying through an opaque, damson-coloured sky, illuminated by a brilliant green moon that was almost full. As she flew her surroundings blurred and she felt hot tears spilling from her eyes, quickly turning cold as they streaked down her cheeks and were blasted by the air rushing past her. She did not even know why she was crying.

She felt stupid. Really, really stupid. She was angry, but only with herself. She had known Hiei well enough: she had known all about his criminal past, his reputation as a thief and a murderer in demon world, she had watched him walk out on his so-called friends in times of need and she had endured countless death threats from him, so really the only excuse for her still believing that he was loveable was that she was stupid. Even when she had gone back in time and met with baby Hiei he had hated her. He had tried to kill her then, and 99 years later, nothing had changed.

She had only ever heard Hiei say her name twice, why did the last time he said it have to be under such horrid circumstances and as part of his most serious threat of murder?

Botan dragged one long sleeve of her kimono over her face to clear the tracks of her tears, but more shortly followed. It was pointless crying, she told herself. This was just the price she had to pay for being so stupid. She had foolishly been hanging onto a belief that Hiei had a kind heart beneath his rough exterior, and even more ridiculously, she had actually let herself fall in love with him on that flimsy premise. She was sure that anyone could have advised her better: Hiei did not have a kind heart. In fact, Hiei did not have a heart at all. He was heartless, and she was an idiot.

Botan could not even remember when she had fallen in love with Hiei, but as she flew through the skies of spirit world that night she knew it better than anything else. She had fallen in love with him, and he had broken her heart in a way she did not think she would ever recover from. She could still see the dark and cold look in his eyes as he told her to get back down on the ground like she was just a meaningless outlet for his physical needs and not a person with a mind, a heart, a soul and feelings.

That, she supposed, was the real Hiei, the Hiei she had forgotten about when she had become caught up in the idea that she was in love with him.

Botan sobbed openly, covering her face with both sleeves.

She wanted to hate him, but all she could think about was that gentle look on his face when he was around Yukina, and how sure she was that he was capable of loving; and that was why she knew that she was not going to be able to forget about him or get over what he had done and said to her.

Botan flew around in circles until she had cried herself out. She then tided herself up mid-air, adjusting her clothing and fixing her hair: though it took her two attempts to get her look right, as the first time she tried she noticed that she had inadvertently tied her obi at the front – like a whore did for easy access, she had thought, bringing on another bout of tearful misery as she considered that that was exactly what Hiei thought of her. Once she had hidden all signs of her grief successfully behind neat clothing, hair scraped tightly back and a ludicrously false smile, Botan continued into the temple, nodding and bowing to various ferry girls and ogres as she approached Koenma's office.

"Blue!"

Botan stopped, barely three steps from the doors to her boss's office.

"I've been looking all over for you!"

Botan forced her smile to widen before turning around to look down at Izumi, who was looking up at her through a weighty frown of concern.

"If you've got a minute, maybe we could talk about your little problem now?" Izumi offered.

"Oh that's alright, Izumi!" Botan replied. "It's all been sorted now. Everything is okay dokay again!"

Botan almost felt sick as she considered how false she was being; but it was necessary.

"What happened?" Izumi asked. "Did you tell him to keep away?"

"Oh no, it was all just a misunderstanding, but it's all super-duper now!" Botan said, swinging a fist in the air in false gusto.

"Well, if you're sure," Izumi said. "If not, come and see me."

"Alrighty!"

Izumi gave Botan one last critical look before darting off and shortly disappearing amidst the madness of bodies swarming around the hallways. Botan turned back to the doors ahead of her, boldly walking through them and approaching Koenma's desk.

"Lord Koenma, Sir," she said. "I'm ready to go back to my duties as a ferry girl."

"Good, we're really busy here, Botan," Koenma replied without looking up from his desk. "It always amazes me how many people commit suicide after Valentine's Day."

How ironic, Botan thought to herself.

* * *

"Hey, stop!"

Botan yelped in surprise as her oar halted in mid-air. Turning around she saw a hand grabbed around the shaft just above the blade, the image sickeningly familiar. She quickly lifted her head to the source of the hand, sighing audibly in relief when she saw Ayame's large dark eyes glaring at her.

"Lord Koenma wants to see you," she said.

"Me?" Botan asked.

"Yes, you," Ayame replied. "Don't you know what this week is?"

Botan touched a finger to one corner of her mouth, rolling her eyes skywards in thought.

"Golden week doesn't start until next week," she concluded. "Lord Koenma needs to check his calendar. This is the 22nd of April, not the 29th."

"I'm not talking about golden week," Ayame said with a small sigh. "Unfortunately. This week is the start of the preliminaries of the demon world tournament."

Botan tensed a little at hearing the words "demon world". She had, quite successfully, pushed all matters concerning that place from her mind for the last nine and a half weeks, immersing herself so fully in her work that she did nothing else but work and sleep. She had no idea what anyone else had been doing during that time, since the only person she had spoken to (outside of the souls she had been ferrying) had been George, to whom she had reported to daily to collect her list of tasks.

"He actually asked me if I wanted to go with him," Ayame said, shaking her head in disbelief. "He's really excited about it, and he said you would be too."

Botan's face dropped.

"He expects me to go?" she asked.

"You don't want to go?" Ayame echoed.

"Well…"

Of course everyone would expect her to want to go, Botan thought miserably. She could not think of any excuse that would get her out of going, and she believed that even if she had a genuine reason not to go Koenma would still make her go regardless. Botan then realised that Ayame was still staring at her expectantly, and she hurriedly forced a smile and choked out a nervous laugh.

"Ah yes!" she said, a little too cheerfully. "Of course I want to go! I'll definitely be there, rooting for… Kurama…"

Botan faltered slightly, realising that mentioning even Yusuke's name was likely to get her dirty looks from her fellow ferry girls. She stuttered out another nervous laugh.

"Alrighty, well, I'll just get on with this list here, and I'll report to Lord Koenma as soon as I'm done ferrying these souls!" she said.

"No," Ayame said, releasing Botan's oar to snatch her list out of her hand. "I'll take care of these, you go see Lord Koenma. Now."

Botan blanched as Ayame zipped off into the air, leaving her behind with her hands still hovering where her list of tasks had been resting only moments ago. All options taken from her, she gave a sigh of resignation and lowered herself towards the temple entrance, stepping aside as two ogres barged through, arguing with each other over whose paperwork was the most urgent.

Botan dragged her feet all the way to Koenma's office doors, where she sighed one last time before forcing an amiable smile onto her face and straightening her back, walking into the office with the air of a happy-go-lucky ferry girl without a care in the world.

It was concerning her how increasingly easy she was finding it to lie lately.

"Knock, knock!" she said, rapping a fist against Koenma's desk.

She straightened again and waited for him to acknowledge her, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual. She cleared her throat loudly, and when that still did not get his attention she knocked on his desk again.

"Knock, knock," she said in louder, flat voice.

Again Botan waited, this time growing impatient. Koenma's chair was turned away from her, so she knew that he was not working. She had no idea what he was actually doing, but she was beginning to suspect that it was something that restricted his hearing. She doubted that he would appreciate her leaning over his desk and yanking his chair around to face her, so she diligently walked around to the other side of the desk, pausing beside the chair as she saw what was sat there.

"Lord Koenma?" she asked quietly, reaching out a hand towards his slouched form.

He looked unconscious, and Botan's heart began to beat harder. His head was lolled forwards, his tall blue hat sitting slightly askew, and his arms were laid loosely across his lap. All sorts of terrible notions began racing through her fragile mind: what if somebody had snuck in earlier and done something terrible to Koenma?

"Sir, please, are you alright?"

Botan reached a hand out to touch his shoulder, screaming and retracting her hand again as the slightest touch made him fall forwards. He sat doubled over in the chair for barely a second before his entire body slid to the ground. Botan dropped to her knees at his side, too shocked for words. She took a hold of his shoulder to turn him onto his back, but then she realised that his body felt unnaturally soft beneath her grip.

Botan lifted her hand into the air, and with little effort, a dummy Lord Koenma came with it. She stared into the plastic face of the replica, her bottom lip quivering slightly and her mind torn between relief, anger and misery.

"Surprise!" a voice suddenly yelled above her head.

Botan cowered away from the noise, glancing back over her shoulder to see Koenma towering over her in his adult form, grinning obnoxiously.

"You see ogre?" he said, turning to George, who had appeared alongside him. "I told you she would fall for it! What a brilliant joke! She really thought it was me!"

"You got her good, Sir!" George agreed.

"Ha, I'm the king of pranks, too!" Koenma boasted. "An extra cool side of me to go with my extra cool face!"

Botan slowly gathered the dummy to her chest, wrapping her arms around it and sinking lower to the ground.

"Come along, Botan!" Koenma said, poking at her shoulder with one finger. "Admit you were stupid and laugh at my joke with the rest of us!"

Botan drew in a shuddering breath and let out a noise that instantly silenced both Koenma and George, and most of the ogres and ferry girls passing by too. Her head fell forwards and she gladly buried her face into the fake Koenma's hat. Behind her the real Koenma swallowed awkwardly and shot George a dark look.

"That was your idea, ogre!" he snapped. "And I told you that it wasn't funny! Now look what you've done! You've frightened the life out of poor Botan! She was so scared that that dummy was me, she's crying now!"

"But Sir, I–"

"I'll have you punished most severely for this, ogre!"

"But Sir!"

"No buts about it, ogre!"

"No-o!" Botan wailed, lifting her head from the dummy. "I'm not crying, I'm fine, I thought it was really funny too-oo!"

Botan continued sobbing loudly, rubbing her face against the dummy, and Koenma and George eyed her warily, each as unsure as the other so to what she had actually meant.

"Are you laughing so hard that it's made you cry?" Koenma asked.

"Yes," she choked out between sobs. "It's so fun-ny!"

Koenma turned to glare at George again, who shrugged, pulling his most innocent face possible.

"Well don't just stand there, you big blue idiot!" Koenma snapped at him. "Go and get the girl some tissues!"

"Right away, Sir!" George agreed, before darting out of the office, visibly glad of the excuse to leave.

Koenma watched him leave until he was out of sight before kneeling down at Botan's side and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Botan, this is an unexpected reaction from anyone," he said gently. "But it's especially unexpected from you. You were supposed to laugh or hit me over the head for mocking you. I'm not convinced that you're this upset over a poor joke. In fact, I think you're only crying because the scare this gave you has brought your emotions to the surface. You've been quiet for weeks. Actually, you've not been your usual, cheerful self since that incident with The Stolen Moment."

Botan tightened her grip on the dummy and sniffled, her shoulders tensing as she tried to hold back her tears.

"If something terrible happened to you back then and you need time off to recover, that's fine," Koenma continued. "We all just want our happy, friendly Botan back."

"But nothing's wrong, Sir!" she lied, forcing a smile. "I'm still happy, friendly Botan!"

She turned to him and the look on his face alone told her that he was even less convinced by her act than she was.

"Botan, just between you and me, you've always been my favourite ferry girl," he said quietly. "Your energy and your passion makes all of us smile. None of us wants to see you sad, and if there is something bothering you, you must tell me. Maybe I can fix it for you. I am the lord of the underworld, remember. And in this cool body, there's nothing I can't do, right?"

Koenma grinned at her with his last remark and she managed a small, genuine smile for the first time in weeks.

"See?" he said. "This body is so awesome, one grin on this beautiful face and you've found your smile again!"

"I was just thinking how ridiculous you look grinning with a pacifier in your mouth in that body, Sir," she quietly replied.

"And I see you're even getting your insolent sense of humour back, so you can't be feeling too awful," he grumbled, his smile vanishing as he spoke.

"I'm sorry Sir, I don't know what came over me," she said, shaking her head. "It's all so silly really. I thought somebody had assassinated you. It was a very mean trick to play on a girl, Sir."

"Whilst I'm flattered that you would pretend to be so upset at the death of your boss, I know there's still something more going on here."

Botan stretched the fingers of one hand out from under her long kimono sleeve, picking her fingernails at the felt kanji on dummy Koenma's hat. She briefly considered that perhaps Kurama had broken his promise and told Koenma the truth about what had happened the day she had found The Stolen Moment, though she dismissed the idea quickly as her overwhelming faith in Kurama's honour reminded her that he was not the sort to break a deal made with anyone under any circumstances.

"I got the tissues, Sir," George said, stumbling into the office again.

"Leave them on my desk, ogre," Koenma instructed him.

"Of course."

George put the box of tissues down onto Koenma's desk, but made no move to leave the room, earning him a death-glare from Koenma.

"Sir, if I may just intrude a little longer, there's something I wanted to say to Botan," George said.

"Now isn't a good time, you thoughtless oaf!" Koenma scolded him. "Can't you see that the girl is upset? She doesn't want your ugly face hanging around here upsetting her any further!"

"Please Sir, if I may just say this one thing, and then I promise I'll leave."

"Ogre, I swear, I will have you–"

"Let him talk, Lord Koenma," Botan said softly, her voice quiet but firm enough to interrupt Koenma's rant.

"Fine ogre, but make it quick!" he snapped at George.

"Um, well, Miss Botan, I just wanted to say that you have such a lovely smile–"

"Ogre, I'm not running a dating service in here, get to the point!"

"–and maybe some people take that for granted sometimes, but everybody here in spirit world enjoys your smile, and we always appreciate seeing it. Even if some other people from outside of spirit world don't."

"What are you talking about, ogre?"

"I just wanted Botan to know that the demon who hurt her feelings isn't worth her tears, Sir."

Botan's head snapped around and she fixed her eyes onto George in disbelief. He grinned nervously under her glare, shrugging his shoulders and sliding back a step.

"What makes you say that, George?" she asked.

"Well, Miss Botan, you shouted out in the corridor out there that you were in love with a demon a few weeks back, and knowing demons the way I do, I imagine he probably let you down or did something nasty to make you so sad."

Botan gulped, lowering her eyes from George to Koenma, who had noticeably tightened his grip on her shoulder. His hazel eyes were staring at her in a look that warned her not to lie to him again, but she feared that telling him the truth would lead to an absolute disaster.

"I never shouted out any such thing," she said, looking over at George again. "I was talking to Iz–a friend, and she shouted out that she thought that I was in love with a demon, but I'm sure she realises now that what she said was really very silly."

"Really very silly, perhaps, Botan," Koenma said slowly. "But was it true? Are you in love with a demon?"

Botan looked into his eyes again, readying herself to tell him that she was not. Her heart had been cold for more than nine weeks, and her only thoughts of romance in that time had been what they had once been before: that it was something that only ever happened to other people.

"I…" she began, her tongue tripping her up. "I c… I can't lie to you, Sir."

She could not lie to Lord Koenma, and yet for some reason neithr could she deny having feelings for a demon.

"Botan, that still doesn't answer my question," he pressed. "Are you, or are you not, in love with a demon?"

"Yes I am," she said faintly. "But I hate myself for it."

Botan dropped her face into the dummy again, more tears burning at her eyes. She realised then that she had passed the last several weeks in denial, and now that she had been forced to face the truth, it hurt even worse than before.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (And the second half of this sprawling, neverending story begins…) Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei are preparing for the preliminaries and Koenma, George and Botan set out to demon world to watch. Botan and George get a little lost en route, and they soon find themselves in big trouble. **Chapter 18: The Storm**.


	18. The Storm

**Recap:** Botan and Hiei had a little tryst on the beach that ended in disaster. Forward nine and a half weeks, Koenma invited Botan to join him as a spectator for the demon world tournament and after breaking down she confessed to him that she is in love with a demon.

* * *

 **Chapter 18: The Storm**

"Ow!" Yusuke cried, touching a hand to his throbbing jaw and glaring up angrily at the shadow standing over him. "Don't you know how to throw your punches? I thought you said you wanted a warm-up! Gees, you're so uptight and hitting so hard it's like you're really trying to kill me!"

"Hn."

"Eww!"

Yusuke barely managed to shirk out of range as Hiei spat at his side.

"Maybe you're the one who needs to learn how a sparring session should be conducted," Hiei said darkly. "Do you think your opponents in the tournament are going to be throwing their punches?"

"You're supposed to be my friend, and this is supposed to just be a bit of exercise, you crazy bastard!" Yusuke replied through tightly clenched teeth.

"Clearly I am going easy on you," Hiei replied with a slight shrug. "I'm not attacking you while you are down."

"Wow, that makes me feel a whole lot better!"

Yusuke got to his feet, barely diving out of range as Hiei swung a fist at his head. He yelled out the worst curse he could think of in the heat of the moment and concentrated his spirit energy into one fist, aiming a punch at Hiei's gut. Yusuke grinned as Hiei doubled over and leapt back to avoid the blow, the whites of his eyes showing for the first time since they had begun their workout.

"Hn, is that what you call "throwing punches"?" Hiei said as he straightened himself out. "My mistake, I thought you were asking me not to aim to kill. This suits me better though. I believe a sparring session should be performed with as much force as a death-match."

Hiei's fist began to glow and a feral grin appeared on his face. Yusuke returned the gesture, though he did worry that perhaps he was about to get more than he had bargained for. He tensed defensively, knowing only too well that Hiei's speed and his ability to distort the true location of his spirit energy would make it difficult to sense and avoid a serious attack. However, to Yusuke's surprise, the glow of energy around Hiei's fist faded and his eyes wandered upwards as though something in the sky had captured his attention.

"I'm not falling for the old "look behind you" trick!" Yusuke warned him. "And I'm surprised that you would even try something like that!"

"Your pet bird is returning," Hiei said flatly. "And it looks like it did what you asked it to do."

"Puu?" Yusuke turned his head, smiling and waving as he saw Puu gliding down towards them, supporting a passenger on his back. "Hey, how's it going?"

Puu landed by Yusuke and Kurama leapt off of his back, nodding a greeting to Yusuke.

"Hn, so that overgrown sparrow does have its uses after all," Hiei muttered, eying Puu over critically.

"Watch it with the insults, Hiei," Yusuke warned him. "Puu is my spirit beast, after all. We're connected spiritually, remember?"

Hiei's face tightened a little, his eyes freezing on Puu's face.

"Connected spiritually?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah!" Yusuke replied.

"What… What about telepathically?"

"What?"

"Can you communicate with it?"

Yusuke pulled a face at Hiei's seemingly ridiculous question, but the look of mild concern on his face soon captured Yusuke's interest, and he quickly made himself look pensive.

"In a way, yes," he lied. "I mean the bird doesn't speak in words, but he makes it really clear what he's thinking of or what he wants. That's how I was able to send him for Kurama. It's like I can put a picture of something inside his head to explain it to him."

"…Does that work both ways?" Hiei asked.

"Absolutely! Puu tells me everything he sees. In my head. In my head he tells me everything."

When Hiei turned to glare at Puu again Yusuke gave Kurama a huge wink, in reply to which Kurama gave him a nervous smile that suggested he wished to be left out of the game.

"He even told me about… Well, I think you know," Yusuke said, grinning menacingly at Hiei.

Hiei's eyes shifted in Yusuke in a sideward glance that fell somewhere between threatening and suspicious.

"It's okay though, I didn't tell anyone else," Yusuke continued. "Not even Kurama."

Kurama gave a small shake of his head and his awkward grin widened as he again tried to convey that he wanted no part of what Yusuke was doing.

"I don't care anyway," Hiei muttered. "I'm not ashamed of anything I do."

"Not even that one thing Puu caught you doing in the forest?" Yusuke asked, elbowing Kurama unsubtly.

Hiei turned abruptly, his eyes thinning into dangerous slits of red.

"Do you send this bird to spy on others for your own delight?" he snarled.

"Sometimes I do," Yusuke said, trying unsuccessfully to fight off a smile. "But sometimes he just happens to be in exactly the wrong place at exactly the right time."

"Forget about it," Hiei said quietly. "And don't ever mention it around me again."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Hiei," Yusuke said casually. "I do it all the time."

Yusuke started laughing, slapping a hand against his leg.

"Ah, Hiei, the look on your face is priceless!" he said.

Yusuke almost choked on his own laughter as he felt the air around him change. He sobered, looking towards where Hiei had been, his eyes widening as he saw that Hiei had vanished. He saw a flash of light and heard a whistling sound in the air in front of him, Hiei landing in a crouch at his feet an instant later.

Yusuke staggered back a step, looking down open-mouthed at Hiei, who was clutching his sword in one hand, his other hand pushed into his hair. As he stood up he dragged his hand down one side of his face, smearing blood from a laceration along his temple. He turned his glare to Kurama, and following his eyes Yusuke saw that Kurama was standing poised as if ready to attack, his rose whip hanging from one hand.

"…What the hell just happened?" Yusuke demanded, glancing back and forth between the two demons.

"I believe swords in a sparring session between friends is bad form, Hiei," Kurama said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he regarded Hiei.

"Cheap shots with a whip aren't especially honourable either," Hiei spat back.

"Hey!" Yusuke protested. "You were aiming that blade at me?"

"Hn," Hiei grunted noncommittally.

"Gees, you really need to learn how to take it easy sometimes, Hiei!" Yusuke yelled. "We're supposed to be friends!"

"There are no friends in war, and that's what we're facing over the coming days," Hiei sternly replied. "Don't expect me to go so easy on you if we face off in the tournament."

Yusuke cursed as Hiei took off in a cloud of dust, gone entirely from sight by the time the air had cleared.

"Damn!" Yusuke muttered, shaking his head. "What's his problem?"

"Hiei doesn't appreciate jokes like you do, Yusuke," Kurama reminded him.

"But it wasn't even anything to get upset about!" Yusuke argued. "What could Puu possibly have seen Hiei doing in the forest that's so embarrassing he had to kill me over it?"

"Well, unless I'm very much mistaken, I think Hiei may have shared a tryst with Botan in the forest outside of Genkai's temple a short while back."

"A what?"

"A tryst."

"You mean they…?"

Kurama frowned curiously at Yusuke as he began dancing his hands through the air in an array of ambiguous positions.

"Yes, well, it seems to be somewhat of a sore subject for Hiei and I don't recommend teasing him about it," Kurama eventually said.

"Are him and Botan still…?" Yusuke asked, wriggling his hands in the air again. "I thought he went back to Mukuro?"

"Hiei's relationship with Mukuro has always been a professional one, as far as I am aware," Kurama corrected him. "As for Hiei's relationship with Botan, I believe it took a turn for the worse at the end of our last case."

"Why, what happened? Would she not put out for–"

"Yusuke, comments like that will lead to your blood staining Hiei's sword. I strongly advise you to never mention any of this again."

Yusuke scratched at the back of his head and pouted.

"I don't get what the big deal is," he grumbled.

"If not for Hiei's sake, then perhaps for Botan's sake?" Kurama tried.

"Botan's an idiot," Yusuke moaned. "And she always makes fun of my relationship with Keiko!"

Kurama started to argue with Yusuke but resigned part way through with a quiet sigh.

"Perhaps you would like to spar with me, since Hiei appears to have abandoned you?" he offered instead.

"Okay," Yusuke said with a shrug. "But no weapons and no death-blows."

"Naturally," Kurama agreed.

* * *

Botan huddled over her bowl of tea and sniffed sharply. She was not crying any more, but the occasional tear was still welling up in her eyes, and her nose refused to dry. It was the steam from the tea, she told herself, lifting her eyes from the fragrant liquid, her first sight being a nervous and awkward blue ogre sat on a hard chair in front of her.

"How's your tea?" he asked her.

She smiled sweetly, sympathising with his situation. She knew that he was just trying to make small talk to ease the tension, but she was still too numb to care for such false pleasantries.

"Fine," she replied, even though she had not taken a single sip from it.

Koenma passed between them and George glanced at his boss briefly before offering Botan another awkward, fang-filled grin. Koenma continued pacing back and forth across the room, which was becoming quite dizzying to watch as he was still in his adult form, and his long legs could cross the room in only a few strides before he was forced to swivel on the spot.

"I'm still waiting for an answer, Botan," he said as he passed between her and George again.

"I can't answer your question, Sir, I'm sorry," she replied, lowering her head to stare into her tea again.

"Well I'm sorry too Botan, because you're going to have to answer me," he insisted. "I can't let you go until you do."

"I don't understand the problem, Sir," she muttered into her tea. "I already told you, it is strictly a one-sided affair, an unrequited love. The demon in question has no feeling for me whatsoever. He doesn't even know my name."

Koenma stopped, planting his hands on his desk and leaning over it. Botan lifted her head to meet his eyes, feeling torn between amusement and fear as she considered the irony of her sitting in Lord Koenma's grand chair and him approaching the desk from the angle she usually did to await her orders.

"Should he know your name, Botan?" Koenma asked.

Botan shook her head.

"It's not normal practise for a ferry girl to socialise with demons," Koenma reminded her. "Least of all living ones. There are only three male demons you ought to even be speaking to, and they are Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei. And I doubt this problem relates to one of those three."

Botan lowered her head again, looking into her tea.

"Botan, if you don't tell me, I can't help you," Koenma added, his tone gentler.

Botan shook her head again.

"It's all very silly, really," she said, keeping her eyes on her cooling beverage. "And it's long past. I thought I had forgotten about it, but I suppose a part of me hasn't. I can't ever see him again anyway, so it's not a problem."

"Botan?"

"Yes?"

Botan lifted her head again to look Koenma in the eye.

"We're going to the demon world tournament," he said flatly. "Every demon in demon world will be there. How likely is it that the one who did this to you is going to be a main feature in the battles we will be watching?"

Botan chewed at her lower lip, unsure how to answer.

"This is very important, Botan," Koenma pressed. "If you won't give me details, you only leave me with one other choice about how to deal with this."

"One other choice?" she repeated quietly.

"One other choice."

Botan lowered her head again, staring into the depths of her tea bowl, already sure that she knew exactly what that "one other choice" was; and it was not something she had ever thought would happen to any ferry girl, least of all her.

"I thought I had forgotten," she softly. "I tried so hard, I just… I just can't forget!"

"Okay, go and clean yourself up and get ready to go to demon world."

Botan's head snapped up.

"We're going to support our friends in the tournament," Koenma reminded her. "I'm going ahead, I'll leave the ogre here to take you when you are ready. Don't be too long though."

Botan frowned slightly, unsure why Koenma had suddenly stopped pressurising her for an answer. She wanted to ask him why and she wanted to ask him how he was planning to deal with her confession, but she was too terrified to hear the answers. Instead she watched silently as Koenma turned his back on her and ordered George to escort her to demon world before leaving the office entirely. She jumped involuntarily as the doors banged shut behind him, spilling a little of her tea on her lap.

"It might be easier if just you tell Lord Koenma who did this to you, Miss Botan," George said quietly.

Botan turned her attention to him, vaguely amused that he cringed as their eyes met.

"I just need to forget," she insisted. "I'll be fine then."

She lifted her bowl to her lips and sipped at her tea, which was barely lukewarm by then, but still surprisingly refreshing.

"You're a good ferry girl, Miss Botan," George said gently. "You shouldn't let some heartless demon be your downfall."

Botan tensed, choking a little on her tea. She lowered her bowl to her lap and coughed to clear her throat before meeting George's eyes with a questioning look.

"My downfall?"

As the words left her lips, Botan silently wondered where she had heard them before.

* * *

Yusuke and Kurama slowed to a halt and neither could stop from smiling at the sight approaching them.

"You know Koenma, the whole point of a disguise is to try to blend in," Yusuke said. "The scarf over the mouth and the crazy glasses only make people look your way."

"I think I have to side with Yusuke on this one, Lord Koenma," Kurama agreed. "Your current outfit does make you a tad conspicuous."

Koenma came to a stop in front of them, pulling the scarf down from his mouth.

"I'm here on serious business," he said. "So can the jokes wait?"

"Sure," Yusuke said through a lop-sided grin. "We'll try telling you again when you're old enough to burp yourself."

Koenma slowly removed his dark glasses, revealing a glare that instantly brought Yusuke to attention.

"Hey, you are serious," he said quietly. "What's up?"

"I need to do something very important before the tournament starts," Koenma replied. "And in order to do it, I'm going to need to find Hiei."

"Hiei?" Yusuke echoed. "What do you need him for?"

"It's very important, Yusuke."

"Well fine, but you know Hiei is never exactly keen to help you out with anything. And I was sparring with him less than an hour ago and I can tell you that he is in a really bad mood today."

"Hiei's always in a bad mood."

"He's in an especially bad mood today."

"That doesn't matter. I have to find him. I was hoping you might know where he is."

Yusuke shrugged.

"He took off in a hurry," he said. "We don't know where he went or even why he went."

"I see," Koenma sighed. "That is a bother."

"May I enquire why you specifically require Hiei's assistance?" Kurama asked. "Puu is with us, if it is a fast messenger you seek."

"Speed isn't the reason I'm looking for Hiei," Koenma replied. "It's rather more complex than that."

Yusuke and Kurama glanced at each other, each looking as confused and wary as the other.

"Then I suppose we better start looking for the little guy," Yusuke said.

* * *

"Ogres weren't meant to fly!"

"It's alright, you won't fall, I promise!"

"Please just take us down!"

Botan sighed and rolled her eyes, dipping her oar downwards. At the change in angle George grabbed his arms around her fearfully from his position by the back of her oar. Although he was squeezing the breath from her lungs she was glad of the distraction he was offering her, between his fear and the pain, since she had finally managed to push all thoughts of Hiei from her mind. She had been so sure that she was not upset and that she had not been affected by the events of Valentine's Day, but apparently she had been wrong.

And now, unfortunately, Koenma knew part of the story.

Botan soon reached the ground, dismounting her oar and encouraging George to do the same. When he did not even after extensive coaching, Botan banished her oar, letting him drop the last inch to the ground, where he was at first alarmed to feel his feet hit the ground but shortly delighted to be back on terra firma.

"Now we just need to find Lord Koenma," Botan said, looking about herself. "I hope he didn't go too far. Do you have any idea which way we should go?"

"Um…"

George scratched at the bald top of his head and began looking about as though searching for a clue as to where Koenma might be. They had landed on a wide, reddish-brown road that ran through a low-level wilderness of thorny plants, the road itself clearly having been created by those robotic bug transporters Botan had seen on her previous visits to demon world. As far as they could see in either direction the road was empty, and there were no obvious buildings or city skylines visible, only a never-ending, undulating blanket of the same thorny plants, interspersed with the occasional clump of taller trees. The sky overhead was red as always, and in the far distance they could see flashes of lightning; though apparently the storm was a long way off as they could not hear the thunderclaps.

"I'm lost," George eventually admitted.

"Perhaps we came through the wrong portal," Botan said. "In that case, we probably need to go that way."

Botan pointed off the path, through what was seemingly the thickest, most overgrown piece of land around them.

"So I'm afraid we're flying again, George," she added, summoning her oar once more.

George let out a pitiful groan but obediently climbed back onto Botan's oar, restraining himself to mere mutterings as she took them up into the air again. She was mindful to keep her movements as smooth and steady as possible to minimise the ogre's trauma, and she remembered to keep her ponytail tucked into the collar of her kimono to stop it slapping him in the face. As they flew over the repetitive countryside below them, Botan noticed that the road they had left behind arced around to one side of them, cutting its way through tougher plants and following what was obviously the route connecting the portals together. It was heading in generally the same direction that she was – which was to be expected, as she was aiming for the next portal – but seemed to be taking a longer, wider route to access the same location.

Botan wondered how many times Hiei had passed along on that exact piece of road during his duties as a guard of the border patrol.

"Bo-taaaan!" George cried out, grabbing onto her again as they began plummeting through the air.

"Oopsie!" she said, trying to pass her blunder off as a mere error of judgement. "Some turbulence there, my bad!"

She quickly calmed herself and smoothly brought her oar upwards and onwards, shrugging George's overly tight embrace from her shoulders.

"What happened?" he asked, daring to look back at the point where they had dropped.

"Just some turbulence," Botan lied again. "I misjudged the… Turbulocity of the turbulence."

"The what?" George echoed, turning to screw up his face at her in confusion.

"It's flying talk," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Oh."

Botan was silently glad that George never questioned her, though she did feel infinitely guilty about lying to him and probably only worsening his fear of flying on her oar by almost sending them crashing to the ground. She had managed to pass weeks without thinking about Hiei once, she thought bitterly, and the one time when she really needed to not think about him he had just popped into her mind. It had only been a fleeting thought too, and yet it had been enough to send that shiver of apprehensive delight down her spine and make her lose her ability to focus her spirit energy into flying.

Damn him for still having that affect on her, even after what he had done that night on the beach.

Botan started to feel angry then, though at least with anger she could muster plenty of spirit energy to keep herself in the air, she thought. Without realising what she was doing, she began flying faster and higher into the sky, only coming to her senses when she heard George shivering behind her. She then realised that not only had she gone up into the cooler air, but she had reached the tail-end of the storm they had seen from their arrival point, and rain was starting to pattern her new red kimono.

"Oopsie," she muttered miserably.

She reduced her speed and eased them down at a very shallow angle, bringing them closer to the land below. Despite having travelled a significant distance, their surroundings still looked the same, the only key difference being a few more clumps of tall trees around them and they were almost directly above the road, which had arced around from one side and was gradually crossing over under them. Botan adjusted her angle slightly, deciding that she probably ought to just follow it, since it would at least lead them somewhere significant, or else they might catch a passing patrol who could give them directions.

"Why did Lord Koenma leave without me?" George moaned. "He always leaves me behind!"

Botan smiled sympathetically.

"And he took the umbrella!" George added, clapping his hands over his head as the rainfall became more intense.

Botan wiped a hand over her face, clearing the excess water from her eyebrows and eyelashes, silently noting that the road below them was starting to flood, and flying really was their only option left. She was growing concerned about the lack of distinguishing features around them though, and beginning to think that they were on completely the wrong side of demon world.

"I hope there aren't any snake or bear demons out here," George muttered.

Botan stiffened, and found herself pulling her oar up on instinct, bringing them level with the tops of the tall trees they were occasionally passing. Hopefully if there were any snakes of bears, they would not be as tall as the trees, she decided, and so they should be safe in their current position.

But Botan's illusion of safety was short-lived.

Both George and Botan yelped as a rumble of thunder sounded to one side of them.

"I'm not scared of thunderstorms," George quickly recovered.

"Me neither," Botan agreed.

Though both knew that the other was lying, they exchanged grins and flew onwards, through the driving rain and growls of thunder. The clouds overhead were thickening and blackening, making it darker and reducing visibility. Botan began to slow her flight, peering through the dense rainfall in the hope of being able to make out any sign of civilisation. She was starting to grow desperate, and had decided that she was willing to stop with the first convoy or at the first town they encountered to get directions and hopefully shelter until the storm passed.

Thunder continued to roll overhead, and as they flew past another gathering of tall trees they saw the first flash of lightning. Botan screamed and closed her eyes, the flash unbelievably close and blinding her in its intensity. Behind her George whimpered and begged with her to be careful. When she opened her eyes again her vision was blotted with colour, an imprint of the flash of light still burnt across her retinas.

"Miss Botan, that was so close!" she heard George sob.

She looked back at the trees they had just past, her jaw dropping as she saw a burnt branch break off and fall to the ground. She could not stop her mind from picturing her oar blackened and broken in half, George rocketing off in one direction and her in the other.

"Oh goodness, this is no good!" she cried. "We have to get through this storm, it's too dangerous to fly!"

Botan started to lower them down towards the ground, squinting down cautiously at the river of mud beneath them.

"Oh dear…" she muttered pitifully.

George suddenly cried out and grabbed her into another bone-crushing hug, and looking back she could see why: a razor-toothed eel had just leapt up from the puddles to snap at her oar.

"Maybe we should stay up here," she said shakily, rising through the air again.

Both Botan and George yelled out in shock as the eel leapt up again, this time managing to bite off a small section of the blade of Botan's oar.

"I need that!" Botan wailed pitifully.

She pulled up the handle of her oar, rising more steeply, blinking against the driving rain and praying that she would not need to make any sudden turns, as without a full blade on her oar, her turning abilities had been severely hampered.

"Lord Koenma said that you are the best ferry girl, Miss Botan!" George said. "You can fly us out of this mess, right?"

"Of course I can, George!" she lied, grinning brilliantly. "Just you wait, we'll be sipping honey tea with Lord Koenma before you can even say thunderstorm!"

"I hope so," George mumbled miserably, his voice almost entirely drowned out by another, particularly angry snarl of thunder. "Because actually, I've always been really scared of thundersto–"

The last syllable of George's last word was, rather ironically, Botan thought, cut off as lightning stabbed mercilessly into a tree ahead of them, splitting it in two vertically. Botan opened her mouth to warn George to hold on tight, but the words never left her lips as she tried to duck under and around the half a tree falling across the road and failed. Her already broken oar veered off course and dragged down in an unexpected manner, the falling tree section coming straight towards them. Botan threw out her arms and leapt from the oar, silently praying that the wet ground would cushion her fall and that there were no more eel demons awaiting her when she got there. She closed her eyes to protect them from the mud and drew in a deep breath, half-expecting herself to sink so deeply she would become fully immersed in the mud as though she was jumping into a pool; but the impact that did come did not feel at all the way she had expected it to.

Botan grunted out an unladylike "oof" as something collided with her side, and she suddenly found herself moving in a different direction. She wanted to open her eyes, but a second later her entire body was jerked to a halt and so she screwed her eyes shut tighter, anticipating mud or water overwhelming her. When neither happened, Botan slowly opened one eye to a thin slit and peered about herself. She had somehow landed several feet off of the road, on top of some of the low-level thorny bushes, in a sort of sitting position that felt surprisingly warm and relaxed.

Botan opened her other eye a little. Her entire body jolted and both her eyes opened wide, staring up at a pair of eyes staring back at her. The sight before her was so unexpected, Botan began thinking that perhaps she had died and this was some sort of strange post-life dream while her soul waited for a ferry girl to escort it to the afterlife.

"Didn't they teach you not to fly in a lightning storm, you stupid woman?"

Botan sighed. It was no dream.

"Hiei."

"Hn."

Somehow, by some inexplicable miracle, Hiei had pushed her out of the path of the falling tree, gathering her into his arms before landing in a safe place. He still had one arm wrapped around the underside of her thighs and his other hand was cradling her head. He was as drenched by the rain as she felt, and probably he was feeling it a lot worse than she was, she thought, since he was missing his coat and scarf, the top half of his body only covered by a ragged blue vest that was soaked through and clinging to every detail of his torso. His spiked hair was plastered down in every direction in a way she had only ever seen it look once before, the change in style being so drastic he barely looked like himself. His hair was parted by his forehead to expose his jagan eye, which was uncovered and open as though he had been using it for something.

Botan's eyes wandered from his, pausing at his lips. With the downward tilt of his head, droplets of rainwater had formed along his lips and she was starting to feel a desire to bring her lips up to catch them as they fell.

Botan quickly closed her eyes and reminded herself that she was an idiot.

"I couldn't save you both, but I think your servant will survive."

Botan's eyes snapped open again and she stared at Hiei in alarm.

"George?" she yelled, a little too forcefully.

Hiei jerked his head to the side slightly and Botan lifted her head, looking back at the gathering of tall trees at the other side of the road. Halfway down one of the trees, George was held up by a branch stabbed through his bodysuit, one hand clutching at the branch to steady himself as his legs were dangling freely beneath him, his other hand hanging onto the remains of Botan's oar.

"Oh gracious!"

Botan leapt out of Hiei's arms and started in the direction of her spirit world colleague but barely travelled two steps before an arm grabbed around her waist and halted her abruptly. She yelped involuntarily as something leapt up out of the undergrowth and vanished in a spray of blood before she could even make out its form. As she recovered her breath Botan looked down, first at the muscular arm braced around her waist and then at the bloodstained sword poised to one side of her. She watched the rain wash the blood from the blade before slowly lifting her eyes to the wielder of the weapon.

"There is a reason the border patrol need to ride these roads regularly," he said. "Weaker, lesser creatures of this world lie here in wait of humans who pass through here accidentally."

"Ah, I see," Botan said with a nod. "Then I think this will be in order!"

She flicked her wrist, her reliable baseball bat sliding into place in her hand. She was almost certain that Hiei made a noise of disgust, but when she looked down at him again his face was impassive. She looked down at her feet, only then realising that the reason her landing had been so cushioned was because Hiei had apparently removed his coat and flung it down ahead of them, covering the thorns of the plants. She was still standing on the coat-covered section of undergrowth, and as she peered over the edge she saw that the plants were quite closely packed and vicious looking – not to mention the potential risk of more unspeakable creatures lurking in the shadows beneath.

"Oh dear," she muttered.

She lifted her head again, seeing that George's suit was slowing tearing, and he would not be hanging in the tree for long. The fall to the ground was not far enough to be a threat, but slight flickers of movement on the road warned Botan that what awaited George on the ground could very well be deadly.

"Hold still George, I'm coming!" she yelled to him.

Of course her voice did not reach him, as the sound of the rain alone was enough to cut it off before it could carry any distance, but Botan hoped that the ogre had somehow understood her, and without a second thought she leapt from the relative safety of Hiei's coat. Hiei's arm that had been around her fell away, and she did not take the time to look back to see why, as she landed roughly amidst the thorny plants, which made light work of her silk kimono. Luckily she was close to the road and the plants around her barely came to halfway up her thighs in height, but they were still brutal enough to cut into her as she tried to wade through them, the slipperiness of the water-logged ground underneath doing little to help her maintain her balance.

When Botan finally reached the road she hesitated, checking in both directions for anything lurking in the mud before starting to run across it towards George. Her first footstep sank in the mud until her entire foot was out of sight. Her second footstep sank in to above her ankle. Determined not to abandon her friend she pushed on, dragging her feet through the dirt. She clutched her baseball bat a little tighter as she sensed something approaching her from one side, turning to watch in awe as the eel demon from earlier shot out of the mud, it's head falling from its body an instant later, followed by the branch George was hanging from breaking from the tree in a clean cut. George fell to the ground with an enormous splash, but he quickly got himself up and managed to grin at Botan, who sighed in relief.

"You see? I told you that I would get us out of this!" she called over to him, resting her bat against one shoulder.

Her smug smile faded as she heard a light splash ahead of her, and she saw Hiei appear, his sword smeared with blood and tree bark. She looked up at the clean cut on the tree and then over at the fallen eel demon, finally realising just what had happened. When she looked at Hiei again she almost wanted to scream: he was standing on the road too, but for some reason he had not sunk into the mud like she had.

"Koenma is looking for you," he said, sounding bored by what he was saying. "But he's a long way from here."

Botan laughed nervously as she caught George glaring at her.

"We were taking a short-cut," she reminded him.

Another rumble of thunder sounded overhead, and George patiently waited for it to finish before answering Botan.

"How are we going to get anywhere?" he asked. "The road is too dangerous to walk, and it's too dangerous to fly in this thundersto–"

Again George was cut off by a flash of lightning, though this time it hit the ground some distance from their current location.

"The storm's passing," Botan pointed out.

"So you can summon a new oar and we can fly out of here?"

George held up the remains of Botan's oar, which were, by then, quite pitiful. The blade was still broken from the eel's bite, and the shaft had snapped near the middle and was only holding together by a thin splinter of wood. George picked his way over to join Botan on the road, handing her the oar. She accepted it with a long face, slowly shaking her head as she eyed it over.

"I can't fix this," she concluded.

"Can't you summon a new one?" George asked.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," Botan replied.

She banished the oar and summoned it again to illustrate her point, the same battered and broken object appearing in her hand.

"Can't you use something else?" George asked. "Like a tree branch?"

"No, I'm sorry," she replied. "My oar is made from a specific type of wood designed to carry my spirit energy. It looks like we'll be travelling on foot, I'm afraid."

George turned his head and, following the direction of his gaze, Botan saw Hiei still standing watching them.

"Hiei?" she said pulling her most pitiful drowned cat face. "Can you tell us which way we should go, we're a little bit lost."

"Follow the road," he advised. "It's the safest and quickest route for someone with your abilities."

"Thank you, Hiei!" she said sweetly. "There you go, we just have to keep following this road!" she said to George. "Come on, take heart, we'll be there soon!"

Botan linked one arm through George's and started to trudge onwards along the road in the direction they had been heading before they had been struck by the falling tree.

"But what about the monsters, Miss Botan?" he asked, reluctantly walking with her.

"Oh don't worry," she said confidently. "I have my monster-smashing bat!"

Botan waved her bat in the air to illustrate her point but George looked less than convinced. They walked on a little further in silence before both stopping abruptly as Hiei appeared in front of them.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a flat voice, his eyes squinting as though he was severely unimpressed by something he saw.

"We're continuing our journey!" Botan brightly replied.

"Your journey through the valley of pain?" Hiei asked. "You need to go that way."

He lifted his sword and pointed it between Botan and George, who turned to each other, exchanging withering looks.

"You told me it was this way!" Botan scolded him.

"You told me you were taking a short-cut!" he argued back.

"Neither of you will last five minutes out here like this," Hiei said.

"We'll be fine," Botan answered him. "Come along George, let's go."

Botan turned around and waited for George to do the same before linking her arm through his again.

"Do we have to walk all the way back?" he moaned. "We were flying for a long time, it could take hours to walk all the way back."

"I'll have Yusuke send his pigeon to collect you," Hiei said behind them.

Botan looked back over her shoulder at him with a radiant smile.

"Oh Hiei, that would be wonderful!" she said.

"Until it gets here you should stay close for your own safety," Hiei added.

"Right," Botan agreed, shuffling closer to George.

"And you should put this on. I won't be answerable to that incorrigible brat if this weather makes you ill."

Botan turned her head to her side, blinking down at Hiei's coat, which he was apparently offering to her. She stared at it dumbly for several seconds before turning to look at Hiei himself. His eyes were on his coat and the look on his face was indescribable. She decided that he was probably just disgusted with her and annoyed that he had been sent to find her – which she had decided was why he was there. Obviously Koenma had worried that she was so late and asked Hiei to look for her with his jagan eye.

"Well alrighty," she said, banishing her baseball bat to free up her hand nearest him. "I'll take it, but not for myself."

Botan took the coat from Hiei's hand and held it out towards George.

"Here, you need this more than I do," she said.

Hiei muttered something behind her that included two or three words she had never heard before, but she ignored him, placing the coat over George's head and tying the sleeves under his chin to make a small cape for him – the size difference between George and Hiei meant that obviously the ogre would not be able to wear the coat, but he could at least benefit from the shelter of it over his head and shoulders. She then turned back to Hiei, who was standing with his head turned away from her, one hand still holding his sword, the other hanging onto his scarf. Botan then began to wonder why he had handed her his coat: obviously he needed it far more than she did. Her kimono was three layers thick and her obi covered most of her torso, so other than where water had slipped down her neck or splashed up from her ankles she was completely dry underneath her clothes. Hiei, on the other hand, was clearly soaked through and looking quite small without the added height his spiked hair usually gave him.

"Here," she said, grabbing his scarf out of his hand.

He turned to her sharply, narrowing his eyes to regard her suspiciously as she squeezed the excess water from the scarf.

"I won't be answerable to Lady Mukuro if this weather makes you ill," she said, winking at him.

His lip curled slightly at her gesture but his face quickly changed, his eyes growing large as she hooked the scarf around his neck and wound it around before lifting a section up to cover his head. He stood surprisingly still while she recreated the makeshift hood she had made for him once before from his scarf. Once she was done she found the result was not quite so effective nor so endearing as it had been the last time she had made it: this time Hiei and the scarf were already drenched, and the material sat limply against his head, making him look like a red-eyed otter cub.

"You look so–" she began, biting her lip to stop herself as she remembered exactly what had happened the last time she had commented on his appearance when wearing his scarf as a hood.

He had forcibly kissed her; and that had been the first time he had kissed her, that had been the start of everything that had led to her standing before him now feeling the way she did.

"Just stay close," he said in a low voice.

Botan started to nod her understanding but froze as she felt his fingers on her hand. She stared into his eyes, almost too afraid to move or look away as he laced his fingers through hers and held her hand at his side. Despite the cold and wet of the rain on both their hands his skin still felt warm to the touch, his grip firm and strong, giving her a sense that as long as he was holding her hand, she was protected and safe, which brought a serene happiness to her.

As all these thoughts passed through her mind and as she looked down into Hiei's bold red eyes Botan felt one idea pushing its way to the surface and shortly consuming her: after all the horrible things that he had done and said to her, why was her body still reacting this way to his touch?

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Koenma has a favour to ask of Hiei, but it appears that he is unwilling to comply (but why?) and Botan overhears something she wishes she hadn't. **Chapter 19: The Confusion.**


	19. The Confusion

**Recap:** Botan refused to tell Koenma which demon she is in love with, Botan and George got caught in a storm in demon world, and it was Hiei to the rescue.

* * *

 **Chapter 19: The Confusion**

It was a less than ideal situation: Botan was knelt by the base of Puu's neck, with George shivering and sneezing at one side of her and Hiei looking particularly intense at her other side. They had flown through the storm at last, but the air in the sky was too cool to be drying, and she was glad of her multiple layers of clothing as her wet hair was making her head numb from the cold. George was trying to warm himself against Puu's back, his teeth chattering and his brow creased: but as ridiculous as he looked, Botan was far more distracted by how Hiei looked and what he was doing.

When Puu had arrived, Botan had assumed that Hiei would run back on foot – she was sure that, even after the rain had flooded the road, Hiei was probably still faster running through the boggy ground than riding on Puu – but when Puu had arrived, Hiei had still been holding Botan's hand. He kept holding it as he helped her up onto Puu's back, he kept holding it as they took off, and even now, as a distinctive tower came into their sights, Hiei was still holding her hand.

And he was still wearing his scarf like a hood.

Botan wondered what they looked like to an outsider watching on. She tried to focus on that thought, because, throughout the flight, Hiei's thumb had been intermittently rubbing against hers, and every time it did she felt like she might fall from Puu's back.

Botan also entertained the idea that ignoring and denying what had happened on Valentine's Day that year had been a phenomenally bad idea: she really ought to have let herself get angry and cry over it, because now she had no idea how she actually felt about Hiei. Logically she ought to hate him, but she had never found it easy to hate anyone, and her mind seemed to be glossing over all the worst things Hiei had ever done or said to her, instead holding onto the sweeter moments they had shared. Except that, truthfully, they had never shared a single sweet moment together, only a handful of slightly less unpleasant moments which seemed sweet by comparison to the more typical death threats and manhandling.

As three figures stepped out onto a platform near the bottom of the tower Botan felt Hiei's thumb pass over hers again. She tried to will her eyes to stay on the rapidly forming figures of Yusuke, Kurama and Koenma, but instead they lowered to her hand, still encased in Hiei's, and, from nowhere, a stupid little voice in the back of her head mewed that what was happening right now was a sweet moment.

Botan lifted her eyes to look directly at Hiei for the first time since Puu had taken off, finding his eyes narrowed and glaring at the three people awaiting their arrival. He looked angry and a little disgusted, and through his scarf Botan could see the faint blue glow of his jagan, indicating that he was using it for something. She sensed that there was something more going on, but she knew that Hiei would never tell her even if there was and so she did not bother to ask.

She turned her attention back to the tower as Puu began to touch down, watching as the bodies awaiting them began to hurry over to join them. Her eyes skipped over Yusuke and Kurama, coming to rest on Koenma, her heart skipping a beat as she remembered her little blunder in his office earlier, and that he was yet to pass sentence on her for her confession. In her moment of panic Botan inadvertently tensed all over, her hand gripping into Hiei's, her mind only registering her action when she felt him grip back. She turned to look at him again and found his eyes already looking up at her, an intensity behind them that suggested he was trying to decide on something. They sat staring into each other's eyes for some time, the moment only ending when Botan turned away at the sound of someone calling her name.

"Botan!" Koenma said again. "Where have you been?"

Botan smiled nervously at him before turning back to Hiei as she felt him pulling on her hand. He was dismounting Puu and she obediently followed him. Together they walked around the bulk of Puu's body to meet up with the others. At first Yusuke grinned and Kurama gave a small smile and nod of his head; but both shortly adopted a look of mild surprise, their eyes lowering to something between Hiei and Botan. Botan followed the direction of their widened eyes, seeing Hiei's arm bent at her side, still clutching her hand, the angle he was holding it at making their gesture stand out in front of them. Botan lifted her head again, her eyes almost instantly landing on Koenma, who was also staring down at their joined hands: only his look was not one of surprise.

"Yusuke, take Botan and find a towel for her," he said flatly, his eyes still on their joined hands. "Hiei," he said, his eyes then lifting and fixing onto Hiei's. "Come with me."

Botan gasped lightly as Hiei's fingers untangled from hers. Without any further words Koenma turned his back and walked away, and Hiei followed after him, still wearing his scarf wrapped around his head. Botan watched them go until they were out of sight before turning to Yusuke and Kurama. She managed a smile, though they both still looked a little taken aback.

"I think I took a wrong turn at the portal," she said meekly. "Oopsie!"

Behind her George groaned and collapsed to the ground.

"You both look well," she added. "Are you both ready for the preliminaries?"

"Yeah," Yusuke slowly replied. "Are you?"

Botan laughed and waved a soggy-sleeved hand at him.

"Oh, silly!" she said. "Why would I need to be ready for the preliminaries? Unless of course you're asking if I'm ready to cheer loudly for my favourite ex-spirit detective, in which case, I am absolutely ready for action!"

Yusuke turned to Kurama, who gave him a small smile.

"We should get you a towel, Botan," Yusuke said, turning back to the ferry girl.

* * *

Koenma led Hiei into the first small room they encountered on the ground floor of Raizen's tower. He closed the door behind them before moving to stand in front of Hiei and crossing his arms over his chest authoritatively.

"Well first of all Hiei, thanks for bringing Botan and the ogre here," he said. "I had no idea they were lost, I thought they had been delayed in spirit world."

"Hn," Hiei grunted disinterestedly.

"Secondly, do you think you could take that thing off of your head? It's a little distracting."

Hiei twitched, his face tensing a little, and he snatched a hand at his scarf, tugging it from his head a little too roughly and throwing it aside. Koenma's eyebrows inched upwards as he saw Hiei's flattened hair underneath, but he said nothing on the matter.

"Hiei, I know you appreciate people being direct with you, so that's exactly what I'm going to do now," he said instead. "I have a problem with Botan, and it needs to be fixed as soon as possible."

"There's nothing I can do to improve the intelligence of a person," Hiei replied with a small smirk. "If there was, as a mercy to us all I would have fixed that orange-haired buffoon you like to keep around."

"Very funny, Hiei," Koenma flatly returned. "But this is far more straightforward. I know that you erase memories as part of your duties as a border patrol guard, and I need you to erase something from Botan's memory for me."

Hiei's face dropped.

"A little unconventional, I know," Koenma continued. "The problem with ferry girls is that their greatest asset is also their greatest weakness: they have human hearts and personalities. It probably would have been a kinder fate to have them emotionless, unfeeling and unthinking, but for the benefit of allowing them to perform their tasks of coaching lost souls, they each have their own personality and feelings. This means that sometimes they think like a human, and grow attached to another soul. It impedes on their work, and it cannot be tolerated. Botan is my favourite ferry girl, I don't intend to lose her over this, so I am doing the only other thing that I can under the circumstances: I need you to wipe her memories of whoever it is she has attached herself to."

"What makes you think I will do this?" Hiei asked. "I have no obligation to you."

"True, you don't," Koenma replied. "But I'm sure you can't possibly have any reason to object to the task? You understand of course that if I knew which demon my ferry girl had fallen in love with, I would do everything in my power to show her the error of her ways before destroying him."

Koenma narrowed his eyes slightly. Hiei did not so much as blink.

"Unfortunately that option isn't available to me," he continued. "Botan won't give me a name. I could ask you to get that answer for me, but I think maybe it's easier for all concerned if you just wipe her memories of him."

Koenma narrowed his eyes further, taking on a distinctly threatening look. Hiei remained unaffected.

"Is that something you think you can do?" Koenma asked slowly.

"Hn," Hiei replied, closing his eyes and dipping his head. "We'll see."

"I'll take that as a yes," Koenma said. "And I ask that you act quickly."

* * *

"Knock yourself out," Yusuke said, waving a hand at the wall behind him.

Botan paused, her head tilted over to one side, her hands halfway through rubbing her hair with a towel. Her eyes slowly widened as she surveyed the wide variety of colourful costumes hanging on the wall behind Yusuke, each one progressively more provocative than the last.

"What is this place?" she asked, straightening up and letting her bedraggled hair fall over one shoulder.

"I thought you wanted a change of clothes," Yusuke said with a shrug, flicking his fingers in the general direction of her clothing, which was still mostly wet and tattered and muddied from her knees downwards.

Botan looked along the wall again before again turning her attention to the large brown eyes watching her with a slight glint of amusement.

"Is this some sort of joke?" she asked. "Those are not clothes!"

Kurama walked into the room behind her and she turned to look at him, watching as the whites of his eyes clearly bordered the green as he took in the sight on the back wall.

"Goodness…" he muttered, regaining his composure as best he could.

"This is the women's dressing room, Botan," Yusuke insisted. "So pick something and wear it."

Botan frowned, eying over the garments hanging behind Yusuke again.

"What sort of women work here?" she asked. "Some of this is just underwear!"

"That's not underwear, those are hotpants," Yusuke corrected her.

""Hot pants"?" Botan echoed. "What the…"

"I think perhaps Yusuke is pulling your leg, Botan," Kurama said, casting Yusuke a stern, warning glance before continuing. "There are female soldiers here, I'm sure you could borrow some of their clothing."

"Botan asked to come here," Yusuke said, folding his arms and trying to look offended.

"No I did not!" Botan argued back. "I do not remember asking to be taken to… A whore's grotto!"

Yusuke's eyes almost popped out of his head but Kurama managed a small chuckle.

"You never asked me if I wanted to dress myself in strings of leather, Yusuke!" Botan continued. "Now take me to the sensible clothes!"

"I asked you if you liked to dance, and you said yes!" Yusuke defended himself.

"I don't see how that leads you to the conclusion that I want to dress myself in this, Mister Urameshi!"

Botan marched up to the wall at the back of the room and snatched down a bright red dress made mostly of holes, the material alluding to only cover the bare minimum amount of skin. Yusuke grinned and picked up a broom from the back corner of the room.

"You said you like to dance with your oar," he said, wrapping a leg around the broom and sliding himself against it to illustrate his point.

Botan dropped the dress and summoned her bat, swinging it at Yusuke's head. He dodged the blow with ease but Botan did not try for a second shot.

"That's no way to speak about a lady, Yusuke!" she shrieked. "I do not wear clothes like these, and I do not dance like that!"

Yusuke dropped the broom with a clatter.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Botan demanded.

"I thought you were too stupid to figure that one out…" he muttered, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully.

Botan growled at Yusuke but banished her baseball bat and turned her back on him, starting towards the door. Before she was halfway across the room she stopped short, mid-stomp, her anger vanishing as she found herself looking directly at Hiei, who was standing in the doorway, looking a little confused and bothered about something. His face slowly straightened as he looked into her eyes and she began to relax a little.

"Follow me," he said after a short silence.

He turned and started to leave, but Botan hesitated to obey his command. She glanced back over her shoulder at Yusuke, who shrugged at her and then she looked over at Kurama, who gave a small shake of his head. Botan was unsure if Kurama was trying to tell her not to go or if he was denying knowledge of why Hiei had called her, but she decided to take her chances, and she followed after Hiei regardless.

He led her along a corridor, occasionally shooting out warning glares at passing demons who eyed him suspiciously. Botan was not entirely sure of the circumstances, but she sensed that of their party, only Yusuke was welcome in Raizen's territory. She was glad that Hiei did not walk for long before turning off the corridor into what seemed to be a small medical bay, with a bed by one wall and cabinets mounted on the other, the slightly daunting scents of sterilising liquid and gauze bandaging filling the air.

Hiei moved to one side of the room and sat down onto a chair there, and so Botan copied his action, sitting down neatly on a chair by the bed, turning it slightly to fully face Hiei. Unlike her, he was completely dry, despite still wearing the same clothing. His hair had regained its generally upward slant and his clothing sat in loose and easy folds once more. His coat was still absent, though Botan suspected that was because George still had it somewhere. His scarf was missing too, she noted, showing the glint of precious metal chains that hung around his neck by the wide-neckline of his vest. He was probably dry because he was always so hot, she decided. His own body heat had been enough to evaporate off the water, whilst she was still dripping and cold.

He was also still missing his bandana, she noted, and his jagan was still open just a little too widely to not be somehow in use: though since she could neither hear nor feel him in her mind she had to assume that he was watching something else.

Perhaps, Botan mused, Hiei was watching Yukina. His twin sister was the reason he had had the eye implanted, after all. Botan's eyes lowered to the ground then as thinking of Yukina only reminded her that she had not visited any of her friends since Valentine's Day, including the little ice maiden. She tried to count out weeks on her fingers, her eyes growing large as she neared the end of her second hand and realised that Yukina's baby would be due in less than two weeks. She mentally kicked herself and decided then and there that, as soon as she reasonably could between rounds of the tournament, she would go and visit Yukina.

Botan's eyes slowly lifted to Hiei again, finding that all three of his eyes were still looking in her direction. She wondered if Yukina had asked him to deliver her letter. Botan had forgotten all about Yukina's desire to contact her friend from the ice village, and she wondered how that had worked out, since Yukina had been intent on asking Hiei to play delivery boy with her letter home. She doubted that Hiei would have refused, since he seemed incapable of refusing his sister anything, but she also highly doubted that he had willingly gone back to the ice village. She began to chew on her lip and wring her hands together in her lap, but Hiei sat across from her as still and silent as before, doing little more than blinking and breathing.

Botan wondered why he had brought her there. She did not have the courage to ask, and she felt that he really ought to tell her his intentions, since he had been the one to call her out and lead her there. He had been acting strangely ever since she had arrived in demon world, though as her eyes focussed on his jagan she reasoned that he was probably still angry with her for stabbing it the way she had. She doubted that Hiei was considerate enough to have tried to see things from her perspective: after all, he had been rude, cruel and unfair to her that night, and left her with only two choices: splinter in the jagan or baseball bat in the crotch.

Botan sighed, tucking a stray strand of still-damp hair behind one ear. She looked down at her soggy clothes, feeling more than a little stupid for having spent so long dressing herself in them. She had wanted to wear something special for the preliminaries of the tournament, especially since Koenma had dressed for the occasion, and she had gone to great lengths to find a kimono in a specific shade of red, with sandals to match and a bow of the same colour for her hair. Now all three layers of silk she wore were stained with blood or mud and shredded from her jaunt through the thorny bushes in her bid to rescue George. She probably looked ridiculous and pitiful, she concluded.

Botan lifted her eyes again, one thought rising to the front of her mind as she looked across the room at Hiei: her kimono of a very specific shade of red was the very same specific shade of red as Hiei's eyes. And, perhaps more oddly, Hiei's shirt was exactly the same colour as her hair: or at least, it was the colour her hair normally was, rather than the darkened shade it currently was from being wet. She wanted to smile at the thought, but as Hiei was still staring at her she did not dare allow herself to.

Her mind wandered again, coming back to pondering why Hiei had held her hand during their flight to Raizen's tower. She also wondered what Koenma had thought when he had, so obviously, noticed it. Yusuke and Kurama had been staring too, but she was not too concerned about their thoughts on the matter. It was possible, she thought miserably, that Koenma had noticed how tightly they were clinging to each other and figured out that Hiei was the demon she had been crying over in his office that morning. That, she thought, would be a real disaster. If Koenma found out about anything that had happened between her and Hiei or even just how she felt about him, the prince was unlikely to respond favourably to Botan or Hiei.

Botan reached up one hand and pinched at the bridge of her nose, letting her eyes close as she tried to focus on something – anything – to stop the threat of tears that was creeping up on her. The last thing she needed right then was to start blubbering like an idiot again, least of all in front of Hiei. He would probably just laugh at her or else simply be disgusted, she told herself, and that thought made it even harder to fight her emotions.

"Hn, you're so simple-minded."

Botan slowly opened her eyes, keeping her head dipped and her hand over her nose, peering across the room at Hiei.

"I don't know why you even came here," he said.

Before Botan could even think about responding to him he had shot from the room, the chair he had been sat on vibrating a little on the spot from the aftershock of the force he had used to launch himself from it. She was almost glad that he was gone, because as she watched his chair steady, her vision blurred a little and a single tear escaped one eye.

"Oh, stop it, Botan!" she muttered to herself. "Stay strong!"

She pulled a kitty face and meowed to herself, but it did little to cheer her up. She sighed and got to her feet again, wiping the tracks of her tear from her cheek before leaving the room again.

* * *

Botan was lost. Again, she thought with a wry smile. Twice in one day! This was getting ridiculous. After leaving the room Hiei had taken her to she had wandered along the corridor in a daze, taking too long to realise that she had gone the wrong way at the start, and subsequently taking too many turns in the hope of finding a short-cut back to her original location.

Botan decided that she was really quite hopeless at finding shortcuts, and that she ought not to bother in future. She thought that perhaps there was an old saying about just such a thing, something about shortcuts being longer in the end, but try as she might, she could not remember it. Trying to remember it consumed her thoughts so much, she did not realise at first that there were voices talking in a room ahead of her, her attention only shifting to her surroundings once more as she neared the doorway and she heard a voice she clearly recognised loudly asking a question.

"I don't get it, who makes the final call? Is it a committee decision or does it just come down to her?"

Botan stopped, turning her head to the open doorway at her side, peering through it to see a large gym of some kind within. In the centre of the room was a large gym mat, and three figures were standing on it facing each other. Botan ducked back out of the doorway and pressed her back to the hall wall outside, concealing herself from their view. Within seconds of doing so she frowned and mouthed out a question about her own sanity: inside the room she had clearly seen Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei, who she had been hoping to find, so why had she not just continued on into the room to meet up with them?

"I imagine it's relatively straightforward, Yusuke," she heard Kurama say. "And if it's not, if the result of a match is not immediately clear, the committee would then debate it amongst themselves."

"That's not what I meant," Yusuke replied. "It says Koto is the match announcer, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And she's calling the matches from the arena, right? So if she's not actually onsite for the fights, how can she be any use as a referee?"

"It's no different to how things were handled at the last tournament."

"But didn't she get sidelined for messing up something? At the start of the dark tournament, she was in the ring calling the matches, but they replaced her, didn't they?"

"I think you're worrying about this too much."

"I was just curious. It just seems a bit weak that somebody watching through a camera can call a match. Although I suppose when she is in the ring all she ever seems to do is almost get herself killed. I don't even understand why she does it, she's no fighter, and when an attack accidentally shoots her way she's totally defenceless!"

"Koto has always been the announcer at any demon tournament."

Botan heard Yusuke sigh loudly.

"That's not what I meant," he sneered. "I meant how do they know when to just use Koto?"

"Hn, that's easy," Hiei said, the smirk evident in his voice. "You just use her when you want it fast and loud."

Botan stiffened against the wall. She was sure that Hiei was not talking about Koto's skills as an announcer, and she was torn between wishing that she had left before she had heard Hiei's last words and wishing to hear what else he had to say on the matter.

"What?" Yusuke laughed. "You mean you've had her?"

"Hn," Hiei plainly replied.

"You dog!" Yusuke said. "How did you manage that? No, wait, let me guess, she gets off on guys who like to fight, that's why she does the officiating job, even though she almost gets killed every time: she just wants to see you unleash your other dragon, right?"

Botan's face twisted in confusion: what other dragon?

"Something like that," Hiei said. "She's always been an easy outlet when times are desperate."

Yusuke laughed and Botan vaguely heard Kurama muttering something that sounded derogatory.

"Oh come on, Kurama!" Yusuke said. "You're just jealous! Heck, I sure am! I wouldn't mind getting my hands on that sweet ass – if it wasn't for Keiko, of course."

"Of course, yes," Kurama dryly replied. "Always the chivalrous one, aren't you Yusuke?"

"Hn, what a ridiculous waste, tying yourself to one woman like that," Hiei said.

"It's not nearly as bad as you probably think it would be," Yusuke answered him.

"An entire lifetime listening to the same shrill voice, looking at the same nagging face and rutting through the same motions? You should get to know your roots a little better Yusuke. Spend some time here in demon world and learn about the really enjoyable things those humans forgot to teach you in the living world."

"Well actually, that's where you start to look stupid, Hiei. My roots here in demon world are my relation to Raizen, right? And Raizen starved to death over 700 years because he was in love with just one woman."

"Exactly my point. What idiot would starve himself for even 700 hours for the possibility of a second chance with one woman? Raizen was a fool, hopefully you will learn from his biggest mistake."

Botan had heard enough. She turned from the doorway and ran off as quickly and quietly as she could, moving in no specific direction and quickly getting herself even more lost amidst the maze of passageways.

* * *

Kurama rolled his eyes and quietly sighed.

"Always the chivalrous one, aren't you Yusuke?" he said with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Hn, what a ridiculous waste, tying yourself to one woman like that," Hiei said, turning his head from Yusuke as he spoke.

"It's not nearly as bad as you probably think it would be," Yusuke answered him, poking a finger at his shoulder to get his attention again.

Hiei's head turned back, looking first at Yusuke's finger then up at Yusuke himself. He looked displeased but soon covered it with another confident grin.

"An entire lifetime listening to the same shrill voice, looking at the same nagging face and rutting through the same motions?" he said. "You should get to know your roots a little better Yusuke. Spend some time here in demon world and learn about the really enjoyable things those humans forgot to teach you in the living world."

"Well actually, that's where you start to look stupid, Hiei," Yusuke responded, folding his arms and straightening up confidently. "My roots here in demon world are my relation to Raizen, right? And Raizen starved to death over 700 years because he was in love with just one woman."

"Exactly my point," Hiei spat. "What idiot would starve himself for even 700 hours for the possibility of a second chance with one woman? Raizen was a fool, hopefully you will learn from his biggest mistake."

Yusuke's face dropped and he turned to Kurama, who shook his head, partly to show that he did not want any further part in the ongoing conversation and partly in the hope of discouraging Yusuke from continuing to provoke Hiei on the matter.

"Okay, first of all, Raizen had it all, and he still chose to do what he did, so maybe you should consider that it might not be a bad thing," Yusuke continued, apparently choosing to ignore Kurama's warning. "And secondly, if you're trying to say that sticking to one girl is wrong then you're just a big hypocrite."

Kurama made a small noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a gasp, glaring at Yusuke in the hope of conveying to him that he ought to stop what he was doing.

"Hypocrite?" Hiei repeated, his face changing, the air around them seeming to change with it.

"Yeah!" Yusuke said with a small laugh. "From what I can tell, you've been tying yourself to one girl for a really long time!"

Hiei's face darkened further and Kurama took a sliding step back from Yusuke.

"The most ridiculous part of it is that I must have been the last one to notice," Yusuke continued blindly. "Even Kuwabara could see what was going on before I could!"

Yusuke grinned and winked at Kurama, who hurriedly shook his head again.

"Come on Hiei, you panicked when you thought Botan was dead on our last mission, and we all saw what happened between you and Botan on Valentine's Day!" Yusuke said.

Kurama caught his breath in shock as he saw Hiei's face suddenly neutralise, all threat of rage leaving him.

"And I saw you holding her hand earlier," Yusuke continued obliviously. "That was just too cute! The look on your face was just priceless, Hiei. You like your ferry girl in that red outfit, huh?"

"Damn you, I wasn't thinking like that at all!" Hiei suddenly snapped. "I was not picturing her in that outfit, and you're an idiot for even suggesting that she put it on!"

"What?" Yusuke echoed.

Hiei's eyes briefly widened and Yusuke's eyes began to wander as he tried to figure out what Hiei had meant. Seeing the slightly panicked and lost look threatening in Hiei's eyes, Kurama found a smile.

"Are you perhaps referring to the incident in the ladies' changing room earlier?" he asked.

Yusuke gave him a questioning look and Hiei turned slightly paler.

"When Botan picked up a particularly meagre red dress and asked if she ought to put it on?" Kurama added.

"Hey, yeah!" Yusuke said, waving a finger at Kurama before turning to grin at Hiei. "I was talking about her red kimono, I wasn't talking about that skimpy little outfit at all, but obviously you were thinking about it! You little perve!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Hiei snapped stubbornly.

"Aw, how adorable!" Yusuke said, poking a finger at the side of Hiei's head. "The quiet and moody little guy has a little crush on the loud-mouthed ferry girl!"

"Fuck you!" Hiei snapped, slapping his hand away.

"I think you might be barking up the wrong tree there anyway," Yusuke said with a shrug. "I don't think Botan would go for a guy like you. And I don't think Koenma or King Enma would be too happy knowing a demon was chasing after one of their ferry girls."

Hiei muttered out a few insulting curse words in Yusuke's direction before marching towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going now?" Yusuke yelled after him. "You said you were gonna spar with me!"

"I'm training alone," Hiei bit back. "I'm sure the fox will play with you."

Kurama sighed as Hiei disappeared through the door, turning to look back at Yusuke.

"I did warn you not to tease him about it," he said.

"You were teasing him too!" Yusuke yelped defensively. "And besides, it's not like he's Kuwabara. Hiei doesn't care what anybody says or thinks about him."

Kurama's face twisted slightly at Yusuke's last words, but as he caught Yusuke scrutinising him he quickly covered his mistake with a soft smile.

"It looks like we are training alone again," he said.

* * *

"Botan, there you are!"

Botan spun around, smiling in relief as she spotted Koenma and George walking towards her.

"Are there no towels or dry clothes around here?" he asked as he drew nearer, eying over her still slightly bedraggled form.

Botan paused, remembering Yusuke taking her into the room full of disgusting clothing.

"Apparently not," she concluded.

"Well never mind," he said. "How do you feel?"

"I feel super, Lord Koenma!" she cheerfully replied. "I can't wait for the tournament to start!"

"Excellent, glad to hear it Botan," he said. "You don't feel any sadness or worry about anything we spoke about before we came here?"

Botan realised then that he was asking about her earlier confession to having feelings for a demon. Well, she thought dryly, after hearing Hiei's opinions on love and forcefully reminding herself of what he had done to her on Valentine's Day she was starting to think that she ought to hate him, not love him.

"I'm not sad or worried about anything, Sir," she replied, shaking her head. "Why would I be?"

"Perfect," Koenma said, the relief obvious on his face. "Let's go and collect our tickets."

"Alright."

Botan joined Koenma at his side and walked on, glancing over at George as she did so, noticing that he was carrying Hiei's coat over one arm, presumably waiting for the opportunity to return it to its rightful owner. She did think that it was odd that Koenma had seemingly forgotten about her confession and that he was doing no more about it. She had been worried that he might have realised that she had been talking about Hiei when he had seen them holding hands earlier, but apparently that was not the case. And apparently he was not going to punish her or banish her from spirit world, both of which had crossed her mind when he had told her that he only had "one other option" for dealing with her after her confession and her refusal to name the demon in question.

Perhaps, she thought, Koenma had decided to let it go. Maybe she had convinced him that she was over it, and he was happy enough to accept her indiscretion on the basis that she did not repeat it. And since she was starting to really resent Hiei, she doubted that she would slip up.

Since seeing Hiei again, Botan had to admit that all the thoughts and feelings she had been quite successfully blocking out over the last several weeks had come flooding back. More specifically, her mind was replaying that one moment when he had looked her in the eye and told her exactly what he was after that night in three words that were starting to make her blood boil to think of. She could relive the moment all too clearly: the beautiful evening sky above his head, the smell of the saltwater and seaweed, the feel of the sand against her back and his skin against hers, the look in his eyes, the lop-sided upward curl of his lips, the sound of his voice as he spoke those three damned words. When he had first started speaking to her on the roof of Genkai's temple she had imagined that she might hear three words from him that night, but the ones he had chosen had certainly not been the ones she had been hoping for.

Botan felt like a fool, and she supposed that the hurt and anger she was feeling was punishment enough for defying the spirit world status quo and falling for a demon. And really, when she thought about it more, she could not exactly justify feeling anger towards Hiei; she had seen firsthand how he had grown up, and he truly did not understand love. Which was actually quite ironic, because neither did his sister, who had been brought up in the ice village Hiei had been so unceremoniously discarded from as an infant. She had never considered how Hiei had been raised away from his mother, but apparently he had been raised by that group of bandits she had found him with in the past, none of whom seemed particularly caring. They had not even bothered to name him – apart from calling him that one terrible word she could barely even bring herself to think about.

But obviously he was not entirely heartless, because despite having been cast out by the ice maidens, Hiei still obviously loved his sister, and Botan was sure that she had been right when she had accused him of not telling Yukina who he was because he was scared that she would reject him too.

Hiei did not want her pity, she reminded herself, and whether or not she had the so-called sympathy for the devil syndrome, pity alone was not a valid reason to love somebody.

Botan had become so lost in her thoughts she had barely noticed that Koenma had already collected their tickets and he was apparently trying to tell her something that, in her daze, her ears had been closed to. She quickly brought herself back to attention, trying to look interested in what he was saying and hoping that she might hear enough of it to cover her error.

"–go back to spirit world and get cleaned up."

Botan nodded, silently wishing that she had heard a little bit more than just that: was he telling her to go back to spirit world alone?

"Unless you want to spend the rest of the day looking like that?" he said, waving a hand at her dishevelled appearance.

She shook her head.

"Oh no, Lord Koenma," she said. "I'll go back to spirit world and clean myself up immediately."

Apparently still a little too caught up in her own private thoughts, Botan summoned her oar without thinking, only realising her mistake when Koenma yelped and staggered back a step from the shattered and dirtied wood in her hand. She turned to look at the remains of her oar, finding that they looked all the more pitiful when seen more clearly without a storm to distract her.

"Oopsie!" she said, hiding it behind her back and grinning at Koenma.

"We'll take Puu, anyway," Koenma said.

"What?" Botan echoed.

"Since there are three of us, we'll take Puu," he said.

"…What?"

"Botan!"

Botan giggled nervously, cowering back as Koenma leaned over her impatiently.

"Have you been listening to a single word I've said?" he asked.

"You said… I should go back to spirit world and get cleaned up?" she tried.

"I said the lottery for slots in the preliminary round of the tournament is starting soon, but it will take a long time, and we ought to spend that time going back to spirit world so that you can get cleaned up before the preliminary elimination round starts!"

"Right, of course, sorry Lord Koenma!"

Koenma eyed her over sceptically before shaking his head and walking on ahead. She hurried after him, and although it took her a few seconds to catch up with him completely, she did still clearly hear what he muttered to himself as she closed the distance between them.

"Either Hiei didn't do what I asked or he did it a little too well."

Botan tried to keep the concerned curiosity she felt from her face as she walked alongside her boss: but she could not help but wonder exactly what his words had meant. Ahead of them a group of demons were gathered around a large television screen at one side of the corridor, and Botan suddenly felt her anger rising again as she saw Koto's smiling visage appear on the screen at four times life size. Botan had never liked the questionable referee, but she especially disliked her now that she knew what the fox had done with Hiei. She tried to block out the sound of the girl's voice as they drew closer to the screen, but her attention was drawn regardless when she heard Koto say the phrase "Team Urameshi".

Botan stopped short, but, she was glad to see, so did Koenma and George, all three staring at the screen in disbelief. Koto was talking about how Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei had once all fought as a team but might end up fighting each other during the upcoming battles. The screen showed replays of some of the classic and defining moments for Team Urameshi during the dark tournament: Yusuke's frenetic fight against Jin, his defeat of Toguro, Kurama planting the seed of the death plant in his own body and his transformations to Youko, and Hiei consuming the dragon of the darkness flame.

Once more seeing Hiei return to the arena after absorbing the dragon, that air of untouchable confidence radiating off of him, the slight smile on his face as Bui began beating into him desperately and hopelessly, left Botan with just one lasting thought: despite knowing that it was wrong and stupid and despite having plenty of reasons not to, she was in love with Hiei.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** The preliminary battle royals begin, Yusuke talks to Botan about LUST, Botan makes a rash decision when things go badly for Hiei in his first challenge and ends up at the mercy of Mukuro. **Chapter 20: The Advice**


	20. The Advice

**Recap:** Koenma asked Hiei to erase Botan's love for a demon from her memory but he didn't do it (why?!), Botan overheard Hiei talking about one of his past conquests but despite all of this she still felt that she liked him (idiot!)

* * *

 **Chapter 20: The Advice**

Botan, Koenma and George arrived at their seats mere seconds after Yusuke was announced victorious in the battle royal he had been a part of. Koenma was disappointed to have missed the action, but cheered up a little when Botan reminded him that Yusuke had won, and apparently he had done so in record timing, so he ought to be proud of his last spirit detective.

"It's your fault anyway, Botan," Koenma said sulkily. "If you hadn't spent so long worrying about your hair, we could have been back here half an hour ago!"

Botan pouted dejectedly, slouching her shoulders forward. She then started to pull her cutest possible cat face, but paused halfway through forming the look as she recalled the real reason why they had taken so long to return to demon world.

"I only took five minutes with my hair!" she pointed out, her feline features fading. "But it took me half an hour to get into the bathroom because somebody else was using it for an unreasonable amount of time!"

"What are you looking at me for?" Koenma yelped. "I don't need to primp myself in front of a mirror, this beauty is all natural!"

Botan pointed a finger beyond Koenma and he turned to George, yelping in alarm at what he saw.

"Ogre!" he cried. "What in the heavens have you done to yourself?"

George grinned bashfully, touching one hand to the slightly off-tone hairpiece he had skewered over his horn to cover his bald top.

"I thought it made me look rather fetching, Sir," he said.

"Fetching?" Koenma echoed. "It looks like you just fetched a squashed ferret from the road and stuck it on your head! Take it off immediately! You're embarrassing Botan!"

Botan started to assure Koenma that she was actually not bothered by George's fashion faux pas, but George bemoaning his fate as the underrated and unappreciated servant to Lord Koenma drowned out her words. She gave up when Koenma started insisting that George's toupee even smelt like a dead ferret, instead turning her attention to the large screen ahead of them, where highlights of the other ongoing battle royals were taking place. As with the last tournament, there were 128 different battle royals being held to narrow the entrants down to those who would participate in the main tournament bouts across four divisions. But, unlike last time, it had been decided that there would be a break of three days between the each round. Botan was unsure if that was a good or a bad thing: it meant the fighters would go into each round fresh, but it did also mean that, potentially, she would be in demon world for three full weeks.

"It seems like the groupings this year have been really random," Koto's voice boomed over the audio system. "In groups 6, 7 and 18 there was one clearly superior fighter who ended the entire brawl in a matter of minutes, but some other groups seem to have a large number of strong fighters, and things are getting bloody and intense! My only disappointment is that I can't see every spurt of blood in every match at once!"

Botan rolled her eyes, telling herself that she was just disgusted by Koto because she had made some unfair rulings on the battles during the dark tournament, and not because of the way Hiei had been speaking about her earlier.

"And over in group 44, it's all come down to just two fighters," Koto continued. "And it looks like we're all in for a rare treat: one of the tournament's favourites to win, Shura, facing off against one of the tournament's bloodiest fighters in the preliminary round!"

"Shura?" Koenma echoed, his voice almost completely lost amidst the yells of the other audience members around him.

"Yes Sir, it's Yomi's son," George shouted to him over the drone of the cheers.

"You idiot, I know that!" Koenma snapped back. "And I know that he's really strong, that's why I put a bet on him to win this tournament!"

"Lord Koenma!" George and Botan both yelped.

"What?" he asked with a shrug. "I put a bet on Yusuke, too."

"But Sir, how could bet on someone like Shura?" George asked.

"Lord Koenma, how could you bet at all?" Botan demanded. "It's very immoral, especially for a man in your position!"

"If that's how you both feel, then when the kid wins this fight and I collect the first part of my winnings, I'll not bother buying either of you dinner!" Koenma sulkily replied.

"But Sir!" George implored. "How could you bet against one of our own allies?"

"What?" Botan echoed, her head snapping around to the large television screen.

Botan's jaw dropped as the screen panned away from Yomi's son and slowly revealed a larger than life image of Hiei. Botan turned back to glare at Koenma in utter dismay.

"For shame, Lord Koenma, for shame," George said, shaking his head, his hairpiece shimmying as he did so.

"Oh, darn!" Koenma grumbled. "The clerk at the betting desk never told me Shura was in the same group as Hiei! Still, it's been three years since Shura last fought, he ought to be as strong as his father by now, so there's still a good chance my gamble could pay off…"

Koenma grunted, his head shooting forwards suddenly as Botan's hand connected with the back of it.

"Hey!" he snapped, glaring at her angrily. "I bruise easily, remember?"

"You bet against Hiei!" Botan growled. "How could you, Lord Koenma?"

"I didn't bet against Hiei!" he defended himself. "I bet for Shura, which just so happens to mean that I've inadvertently bet against Hiei."

Botan gave her boss a withering look and he grinned nervously, rubbing at the stinging aftermath of her slap by the back of his head.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Sir," she said flatly.

"I'll give you half my winnings?" he offered.

"That's despicable!" she hissed. "How can you still be talking like you want Hiei to lose?"

"Let's just watch the fight, shall we?"

Koenma took hold of Botan's face in both hands and forcibly turned her to face the screen, sighing quietly in relief as her eyes grew large in wonder at what she saw, seemingly distracting her from his mistake.

And Botan truly did forget all about Koenma's misplaced bet as her eyes landed on Hiei. He did not look particularly different – he was dressed the same as always and was wearing his typically focussed look he wore in battle – but there was just something about him as he stood poised for attack, an air of confidence and power that exuded from him in waves. He was not approaching facing Shura as a man who feared losing, rather it seemed that he was absolutely confident of victory: and Botan knew only too well why. It mattered not who his opponent was, Hiei would do whatever it took to win. The look in his eyes on the giant screen reminded Botan of the speech he had made after he had absorbed the Dragon of the Darkness Flame in the final round of the dark tournament: he had said that he alone had the courage, strength and abandon to realise the glorious potential of the technique. That was exactly how he appeared now: courageous, strong and reckless.

Although, Botan thought to herself, Hiei always was courageous, strong and reckless. He just seemed to be more so now.

As the camera panned back to show both fighters, it became obvious just how much Shura had grown in the last three years: whilst he was not yet as large as his father, he was already taller than Hiei, and had a more mature look about him, both in his confident grin and his calmer stance. Botan wondered if he was now as strong as his father: if he was, she did not like Hiei's chances, since even Yusuke had been unable to defeat Yomi the last time around. Koto's voice was still talking about the rules of elimination for the battle royal, but Botan was not listening. She doubted that they would matter anyway to two such ambitious and ruthless fighters.

Botan saw Hiei raise his sword, but everything after that was a blur of light flashes, the shockwaves of everything happening apparently extending up as far as the flying eyeball cameras filming the action as the entire image began to judder slightly. Botan envied the demons around her whose eyes were faster and keener than hers, and only when the action slowed to a brief halt did she realise that she had been holding her breath during the initial flurry of activity. Shura was sporting a few gashes in his clothing, two of which were slightly stained with his blood and Hiei looked as though he had taken a hard hit to one side of his face, his cheek already swelling a little.

"Oh my…" Botan whispered, leaning forwards in her seat.

Hiei grinned and Shura returned the gesture.

"Can we get audio on this one?" Koto's voice asked.

Botan wondered why Koto had asked such a stupid question: neither fighter was talking, and the action had paused.

"I know who you are," a voice suddenly boomed over the audio system.

Botan turned to the speaker nearest her as though expecting to see the source of the voice there.

"You're Hiei, and you're one of Yusuke Urameshi's friends."

Botan turned back to the screen, realising then that the voice she was hearing was Shura's, unrecognisable because it had matured as much as he had in the last three years.

"And I know that you and your friends were sneaking around outside my father's territory a few months back, spying on us."

Botan glanced at Koenma, who had, understandably, turned paler and looked to be sweating. It was true that, on the advice of Kurama, the team had spent some of their time in demon world searching in and around Yomi's territory for signs of the demons seeking The Stolen Moment.

"I'm gonna make you pay for that," Shura continued. "I've seen your performances in previous tournaments, you're no match for me."

"Well, tough talk from young Shura there, folks!" Koto commented.

"Keep talking, it will only make you look all the more ridiculous when I destroy you," Hiei said. "Don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're a child."

Shura growled, his fists glowing as he powered up for an attack. Hiei looked less than impressed, and as Shura launched a barrage of energy blasts, Hiei vanished in a blur of motion.

"And over in group 103, the fighting is really intense!" Koto announced.

Botan yelped as the screen switched to a completely different battle, almost falling over the demon sat in front of her. She realised then that she had, quite literally, been on the edge of her seat watching Hiei's fight.

"Some of these battle royal mixes are very unfortunate," Koenma muttered. "It looks like the first round tournament could have rather a lot of underdogs appearing."

"Surely that's a good thing for Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei, Sir," George pointed out. "It means they will probably fight someone they can easily beat in the first round, and advance further."

"Yes…" Koenma mused. "It also means I should have put my money on one of these unheard of names, the odds are so much higher…"

"Lord Koenma!" Botan snapped, rounding on him.

"Calm down Botan, I was only kidding!" he assured her.

"Well I wouldn't know about that since you bet against Hiei already!" she ranted.

He merely grinned at her and she sighed, hanging her head in defeat. She turned her attention back to the screen. Over the next half an hour, Botan saw Kurama win his battle royal, Jin win his and Chu win his. She started to think that the screen would never return to Hiei's battle, almost giving up hope entirely on seeing any more of the action. When Koto once more announced that group 44 was showing, Botan did not immediately register that the fight she most wanted to see had returned to the screen, instead silently musing over how unlucky it was for someone to be in group 44 – since 4 was the number associated with death.

"With both fighters down and the clock nearing ten minutes, it looks like there won't be a winner from group 44 at all!" Koto said. "I'm not sure how the committee will rule on this, if maybe a win will be awarded to the last fighter to attack, or if the slot will just be left empty. Lucky for the winner of group 43 if it does, because they will automatically advance to the second round!"

"Oh dear, that's not good," Koenma said.

Botan, who had by then slouched back in her seat, casually lifted her eyes to the screen, watching as a battered and worn out Shura appeared, lying flat on his back. She enjoyed a brief moment of calm before suddenly her entire body jolted forwards and she was staring unblinkingly at the screen.

"Where's Hiei?" she demanded.

"Down, I think," Koenma casually replied.

"What?"

Before Koenma could answer her, Botan saw for herself what had become of Hiei since he had last been shown: just like Shura, Hiei was on the ground and looked completely worn out.

"Oh no!" she whispered.

"Yes, this is doubly bad," Koenma said with a sigh. "Hiei isn't advancing and I've lost my bet."

"Sir, that is inappropriate talk," George said quietly.

Koenma gave a snide reply and the two began bickering amongst themselves, but Botan was deaf to their words, her attention fully focussed on the footage from group 44 showing on the screen. No explanation was being given for why or how both fighters had ended up grounded, but by the inappropriately peaceful look on Hiei's face, it seemed as though he had unleashed his dragon and was sleeping off the effects of the attack. But, Botan thought, if he had used his ultimate attack, Shura would not still be in existence. She balled her fists in frustration, silently wondering who she ought to punch for not covering the action correctly.

"Hey, I thought I saw a face I recognised!"

Botan did not move at the sound of the voice at her side, her attention still locked onto the screen. A hand waved in front of her eyes and she slapped it away irritably, only granting the owner of it any attention when he said something that actually did interest her.

"I'm surprised Hiei is still alive, it was almost like he wasn't fighting to win back there. He should have taken that kid out when he had the chance. I don't believe in unnecessary killing, but with an opponent like that, you can't hesitate and you have to hit him with all you've got."

Botan turned her head to look directly at Yusuke, who had somehow managed to sit next to her. She wondered what had happened to the demons who had been sitting there before, since Yusuke appeared to have cleared half the length of the bench along from her, but she did not wonder for long, as she was too keen to hear what he had to say about Hiei's fight.

"You saw what happened out there?" she asked.

"Sure, there's a room backstage where you can see every battle at once," Yusuke replied with a shrug. "I was watching the ones I was the most interested in, but they're all over now apart from Hiei's group. I wouldn't mind a shot at either guy, but I have to say, I'd be pretty disappointed if Hiei lost now and didn't even make it to the first round."

"Don't say that!" Botan snapped at him, before turning to Koenma. "And why didn't you tell me there was a place backstage where we could watch all the groups at once?"

"I didn't know!" Koenma defended himself. "And besides, do you really think you could keep track of 128 different fights all at once?"

"Koto manages it!" she ground out.

"Don't worry, all the usual suspects made it through to the first round," Yusuke assured her. "I'm through, Kurama's through, Jin's through, Chu's through, Rinku's through–"

"And we're down to the last ten seconds here, folks, what a nail-biting conclusion!" Koto interrupted him.

A timer appeared in the bottom corner of the large screen, showing the time both fighters had been down for as 9:50 and counting upwards.

"I've been told that if the counter reaches ten minutes and neither fighter rises, this group will be considered a tied result and neither fighter will advance," Koto continued. "And so far it doesn't look good!"

"What happened?" Botan demanded, turning to Yusuke. "Did Hiei use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame?"

"No, that's the weirdest part," Yusuke replied, shaking his head. "He could have, but didn't. We've got three days until the first round he could have easily slept it off in that time. I don't know what he was thinking."

"Maybe he didn't think it would be enough to defeat Shura?" Koenma suggested.

"No, I don't think that was it," Yusuke said with a shake of his head. "There's something really weird about Hiei lately, I can't explain it. Even Kurama doesn't understand it. And you know Hiei, he's a man of so few words, we'd never know even if there was something affecting him right now."

"Something affecting him?" Botan muttered.

"Yeah, it's like something has got inside his head," Yusuke replied. "It's weird."

"Five seconds left people, and it's not looking good," Koto announced.

Botan turned back to the screen, which was still showing an aerial view of the two figures lying splayed on the ground a short distance from each other. Spectators around her began counting down the last five seconds of the action, and the sound made her feel sick inside. She covered her face with her long kimono sleeves, waiting to hear the announcement rather than have to see it. She was disappointed that Hiei would not advance, but she was far more concerned about how badly hurt he might be. If he had been down for ten minutes that could only mean that he had been seriously injured or was unconscious. Or he was dead. There were no referees on ground level to check, it was a distinct possibility, she thought miserably.

"And time is up for Shura, but in those crucial last three seconds, Hiei has got to his feet, making him the victor of group 44!"

Botan's hands dropped to her lap and she stared incredulously at the enormous image of Hiei standing, his clothes in tatters, his sword hanging broken from one hand. His eyes were glazed over as though he was unconscious, as though some instinctual part of him had forced him to his feet in spite of his condition to claim the win. Most of the audience were booing – apparently Hiei was as unpopular as ever – as Hiei staggered forwards a few steps. He turned his head slightly to look down at Shura, swaying a little as he paused to regard his fallen opponent. He then continued on a few steps more before collapsing, turning the boos and jeers around Botan into cheers.

The screen changed to another ongoing battle and Botan was on her feet.

"Botan?" Koenma said to her.

Hiei was stuck on that raised platform, she thought to herself. He could lie there long enough before anyone would think to send help. She had witnessed firsthand how the demon world tournament committees dealt with their injured warriors, and she knew that if she did not do something Hiei would be lying there until he healed himself or died.

"I have to use the bathroom," she lied, pushing her way past Yusuke.

She heard Koenma calling something after her as she ran, but she could not clearly decipher his words over the roar of the crowd. She knew that if she stopped and turned back he would find an excuse to stop her from going, so she shut out his voice and ran on. She suspected that he knew where she was really going and why; she could still clearly see the look on his face when he had seen her holding Hiei's hand, and she could still hear echoes of the tone of his voice when he had ordered her to tell him which demon had stolen her heart. But she could not leave Hiei alone at such a time, so she ran on.

Outside of the arena, the temptation to summon her oar and start flying towards the distant plateaus the fights were taking place on was overwhelming and Botan had to fight against it. She was still sensible enough to know that hopping onto her oar and flying through hoards of unknown demons, revealing herself as a ferry girl from spirit world, was a dangerous thing to do, and so she ran on, silently cursing her own lack of super-speed as she went.

Every time something flew over her head or sped past her Botan grew more determined, her mind thinking of nothing but the image of Hiei collapsing on that giant screen, that was now burned into her memory and beating down all logic. After what seemed to her like an eternity, she eventually reached the edge of the forest of okunen trees. There were clearly more than 128 of them, but she could still see flying eyeballs filming those where fights were still ongoing, narrowing down her search a little. Once she got airborne it would be easier, she told herself, holding out a hand to summon her oar as she ran into the midst of the trees, looking upwards for her first point to check.

As soon as Botan felt the handle of her oar in her palm she swung it around and leapt up to hop onto it, using the momentum of her sprint to launch herself upwards and forwards – and over in the air, becoming tangled in the shattered remains of her oar, crashing shoulder-first into the unforgiving, hard and dusty ground, rolling over and almost breaking a leg as her oar tangled around it painfully. She tried to drag herself back up, but found that her splintered oar had bitten into her kimono in multiple places and tied the lower half of her body in a knot. She began tugging at her clothing in desperation, not even caring when she heard the sounds of ripping silk.

"Hey, whoa there!" a voice said, grabbing her wrists to halt her actions.

She lifted her eyes angrily, finding two large, worried brown eyes looking down at her.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"My oar broke," she replied, trying to wrestle her wrists from his grasp.

"Okay, but calm down, Botan!"

Botan gave one last effort to escape his hold before sighing and relaxing into it.

"You idiot!" he scoffed. "What were you thinking? Were you gonna fly up there to rescue Hiei on this thing?"

Botan's anger faded as Yusuke freed the lower part of her oar from her clothing and held it up, showing the broken blade and warped handle.

"Somebody has to get him down from there," she muttered, folding her arms moodily.

"Well somebody will get him down from there, so don't worry," Yusuke replied. "Somebody who can actually fly, somebody a lot faster than you, somebody a lot stronger than you and somebody better able to heal him than you."

Botan sighed and lowered her head, only to snap it back up as Yusuke lifted up the hem of her kimono.

"Get your hands off!" she snapped, slapping his arms away.

"I was trying to help you get untangled, you idiot!" he snapped back.

"I can do that myself now, thank you very much!" she said haughtily, reaching down to unpick her kimono from her oar.

"It's not a big deal, Botan," Yusuke said with a shrug. "We've been friends for years, and I'm with Keiko. And it's not like I haven't seen your legs before. You used to like wearing that school uniform when we first worked together."

"That's not the point, Yusuke! I don't want you looking at me or touching me like that!"

"Who cares?"

"I do! And you should too!"

"Gees Botan, you're such a prude. It's no wonder Hiei's in such a bad mood right now."

Botan stopped short, glaring up at Yusuke. He had turned away from her and spoken his last words under his breath, but his voice had not been quite as quiet as he had thought, because she had heard it all too clearly.

"I don't know what you mean," she said, turning her attention back to her oar and continuing her task of freeing herself.

"I'm just saying, Hiei's a little tense right now," Yusuke replied.

"I wouldn't know about that," Botan said.

"Well he is. I mean, things were pretty tight back there, wouldn't you say?"

"Tight? I wasn't worried for a minute. I knew Hiei would come out on top."

"Yeah, I guess Hiei likes coming out on top."

"He always does. I don't doubt him – or you, or Kurama, or Kuwabara, either."

"I think he likes it when it gets that tight though. I'm sure you know more about that than me though, right?"

Botan finished removing her oar from her clothing, lifting her eyes slowly to Yusuke.

"What are you trying to imply?" she asked suspiciously. "I don't know anything about Hiei – I mean, I don't know any more about him than you do."

"I was just saying he seems like the kinda guy who likes it really tight," Yusuke replied, grinning down at her.

"Well, he always rises to a challenge, if that's what you mean," Botan said as she got to her feet.

"Oh I bet he does always rise to the challenge," Yusuke responded. "He's a really keen sort of guy."

Botan frowned slightly, the vague idea that she and Yusuke were talking at cross-purposes passing over her.

"He's always keen to test the limit of his skills," she said slowly.

"So you're saying he likes to try new things?" Yusuke asked.

"Well, I… I don't know about that, it seems like he relies on his strongest manoeuvres most of the time," she replied. "He does like to finish by unleashing the dragon whenever he can, though that does always exhaust him."

"Yeah, he really unleashes his dragon with all he's got."

"Yes, he does."

"Do you like it like that?"

"Do I like what like that? You're not making any sense!"

"Hiei's dragon, do you like it?"

"What sort of a question is that?"

"Do you like it?"

"Well, it's very big and powerful."

"Yeah, I bet it is. I bet it really throbs and pulses when he unloading it, right?"

"I don't know. How would I know? I've never been on the receiving end of Hiei's dragon. If I had, I certainly wouldn't be standing here to speak about it now, would I?"

"No, I suppose if Hiei did unload his dragon in you, you wouldn't be able to walk for a week."

Botan's face twisted.

"Yusuke, what in the name of King Enma are you talking about?" she demanded.

Yusuke sighed, shaking his head. He patted a hand on top of Botan's head, causing her face to twist further as her angered confusion became embarrassed confusion.

"You're so stupid, this just isn't even fun any more," he sighed. "Though I guess Kuwabara would probably still find it funny."

"Yusuke, I really have no idea what you are talking about," she insisted.

"I know you don't. That's why it's so sad. I actually feel sorry for Hiei. Look, I think I can help you both out. The problem between you and Hiei is really simple: it's LUST."

"Hey!" Botan snapped, summoning her baseball bat and swinging it at Yusuke's head.

He caught her blow in the palm of his hand, pushing it away from his face.

"How dare you use that sort of language around me?" she snapped. "That's disgusting! And it's none of your business anyway!"

"Well first of all, I'm actually surprised that you understand what the word lust means," he said.

"Of course I know what it means!" she growled, trying to pry her bat out of his grip.

"Secondly, I didn't say lust the word, I said LUST the acronym."

"The what?"

"LUST. L-U-S-T."

"…What?"

"Like, Unresolved Sexual Tension."

"…What?"

"Unresolved sexual tension, you idiot!"

Botan gasped, releasing her bat and staggering back a step from Yusuke. He grinned at her, but his merriment was short-lived as her bat disappeared from his hand, appearing in hers a second later. This time she connected with her blow, smacking him over the side of the head.

"You're still a filthy little boy, Yusuke!" she shouted at him.

"And you're still a naïve little virgin, Botan!" he shouted back.

She yelped as he smacked her over the head, grabbing her hands at where he hit and glaring at him in disbelief.

"Did that knock any sense into you?" he asked.

She growled and readied her bat for another swing at him, but stopped as he shrugged and took on a knowing look.

"What?" she asked quietly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was just wondering…" he said slowly, his tone more than little mocking. "If you didn't know what unresolved sexual tension was, do you know what the cure is?"

Botan's bat vanished.

"There's a cure?" she asked.

Yusuke grinned.

"Yeah, a real simple one," he replied. "The answer is in the problem."

"It is? Is it unresolved? Or is it tension?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes and growled quietly.

"No you dumb bitch, it's sex!"

Botan froze as Yusuke's voice speaking the word "sex" echoed around the treetops above them. She was numb: she did not know whether to be angry with him or upset within herself.

"Seriously," he said, clapping a hand onto her shoulder. "You and Hiei should just go do each other and get it out of your systems. He's been moody and unbearable – and I mean more so than usual – and you've been ditzy and erratic – and I mean more so than usual – ever since we set out to look for The Stolen Moment."

Botan answered him with a small nod, though she was unsure why she was agreeing – she was completely confused and her mind was blank.

"And I'm not being a pervert," Yusuke added. "I'm just offering an old friend some friendly advice."

Botan nodded again, and again she wondered why.

"He'll be back on his feet soon enough," Yusuke continued, nodding at something behind Botan.

She turned her head to see one of the all-too-familiar white transport bugs that frequented the borders of demon world. As she watched, two large winged demons flew up towards the top of one of the okunen trees.

"I hear Mukuro has the best healing chambers in demon world," Yusuke said. "She'll take good care of Hiei."

Botan turned back to Yusuke, blinking at him curiously.

"And I mean medically," he added as their eyes met. "Kurama said Hiei isn't boning –I mean, he isn't involved with Mukuro."

Botan nodded again, though she still did not know why she kept doing it. She then did two things she could neither explain nor understand when she thought about them later: she handed Yusuke the remains of her oar and turned from him, running towards the convoy.

"Botan!" Yusuke yelled after her. "You don't have to do that! And you won't get anywhere without your oar, anyway!"

Botan kept running, ignoring him completely. Behind her Yusuke waved her oar in the air a few times before noticing just how badly damaged it was. He frowned at it curiously before shrugging and resting it across his shoulders, hooking his hands over each end. He turned from Botan and walked back to the arena, deciding that he had done all he could to stop her, and yet she had still insisted on chasing blindly after Hiei.

As he walked back, Yusuke silently wondered what Koenma really thought about his top ferry girl chasing after a dangerous and powerful demon.

* * *

Mukuro nodded at one of her medical technicians as he handed her a report sheet. She skimmed over it, but it did not tell her anything that she had not already figured out for herself: Hiei was suffering from several moderate burns, lacerations and contusions and his spirit energy was remarkably low, considering he had not actually launched his ultimate attack. The one thing the report did not tell her that she was sure was also a key reason why Hiei was suspended in a healing chamber was that Hiei's biggest wound was the one inside his head: he had been acting like an idiot for weeks.

In fact, she thought darkly, he had been acting foolishly ever since he had disappeared into the human realm to reunite with his friends there. He had been seen skulking around Yomi's territory, he had been sighted in Raizen's tower and she knew that he had been responsible for the murder of a group of low-class bandits in her own territory. She had not questioned him on any of it: she had long ago learnt that Hiei would never tell her anything anyway, but she suspected that something had happened to Hiei during that time. He had always made it clear that his only loyalties lay with his friends – Yusuke, Kurama, Yukina and the handful of humans they associated with – but it still amazed her that he had just vanished one night to join them in whatever little task it was spirit world had asked of them.

Hiei was the archetypical demon of demon world, and so his unusual willingness to jump when ordered by spirit world, a place he claimed to despise, made no sense.

Mukuro stepped forwards to stand in front of the healing chamber Hiei was resting in, briefly contemplating reaching a hand inside the chamber to search his thoughts and find out exactly what was going on. He would doubtlessly not appreciate such a gesture, but she was beginning to lose her patience with him. He always said that he did not back out of any alliances he made, but he was getting dangerously close to breaking his alliance with her if he continued with his inexplicable behaviour.

"Hey, I told you to stay back!"

Mukuro frowned slightly at the sound of the voice behind her.

"How did you even get in here?"

It was the voice of one of her top soldiers, and he sounded as confused as he did angry.

"Hey, I've seen you before!"

His last words were answered with a series of pitiful meows. Mukuro squinted at the glass of Hiei's chamber, which, under the glare of the lights overhead, was slightly reflective. In the glass she could see the open doorway behind her, where her soldier was hunched over something, his face flickering between bemusement and amusement.

"You're that human Hiei knows," he said.

Mukuro took a step to the side, altering the angle of the reflection in front of her, bringing the subject her soldier was addressing into her line of sight.

"Oh, please, I came such a long way, I promise I won't take much of your time."

It was that girl again. Either she was infinitely stupid or unquestionably brave. Somehow she had made it into the fortress and as far as the medical wing. She wasn't dressed quite so ridiculously this time, but it was still clearly the same human woman. She was in a slightly torn and very dirty pink kimono, and her ridiculously blue hair was hanging loose and straggly about her shoulders. She was performing annoying cat impersonations that she apparently thought made her look endearing, in the hope of charming the soldiers into letting her through. She was achieving her objective, though not by the way she thought: her pitiful little displays were not charming anyone, but they were causing enough confusion that she had managed to pass through the garrisons of guards usually stationed to stop such intruders from gaining unauthorised access to the fortress.

"What the hell are you?" the soldier asked.

"A lost little kitty."

Mukuro turned around, narrowing her eyes as she watched the idiotic girl bunch up the overly long sleeves of her kimono by her face, staring up at the S-class demon in front of her with large, watery pink eyes.

"You're a crazy bitch is what you are," the soldier corrected her.

Mukuro started towards the doorway, containing a groan as the girl did a distinct double-take in her direction before breaking into a brilliant smile.

"Lady Mukuro!" she sang far too cheerfully.

"How do you know my name?" Mukuro asked her, her eyes thinning further.

"We've met before!" the girl replied, her face looking almost disappointed that Mukuro seemed not to remember her.

"I asked Hiei to erase your memories of this place," Mukuro flatly replied. "So why are you back here with clear memories of it?"

The girl's face dropped. She was still holding her long sleeves up to her face, looking like the last kitten in the box at a rainy yard sale. She was compellingly cute and stupendously stupid.

"I just came to see Hiei, Ma'am," she said quietly.

"This is a very dangerous place for a strong demon to come to," Mukuro patiently replied. "So why has a scrawny and weak human like you come here?"

The girl's eyes wandered from hers, widening as they apparently spotted Hiei over her shoulder. She gasped, her sleeves slapping against her open mouth.

"You must have walked some way to get here from the nearest portal," Mukuro continued. "And there is currently a major tournament ongoing, and it is causing a lot of rioting, making this place even more dangerous than… What the hell are you doing?"

Mukuro turned in dumbstruck awe as the girl slipped past her and skipped over to the chamber Hiei was suspended in, stopping with her face mere inches from his body.

"Oh my, it's awful!" she muttered into her sleeves. "Will he be alright? Oh goodness, this chamber is filled with water! Can he breathe in there?"

Mukuro looked up at her soldier, but the utterly perplexed look on his face told her that she would be wasting her time if she even bothered asking how the girl had got inside the fortress or where she had come from. Instead she turned around and walked over to the girl's side.

"This is a healing chamber," she said. "And this," she waved a hand about herself, "is my home. Hiei is one of my men. Everything here is as it should be. Apart from you. Who are you, and how did you get in here?"

"Healing chamber?" the girl said faintly, frowning up at Hiei's face.

Ignoring everything else Mukuro had just said, the girl reached up one hand, touching a finger to the glass over Hiei's face. She looked genuinely concerned for his welfare, which just made the entire situation all the more ludicrous. She dragged her finger down the glass, her eyes following it down the length of Hiei's body, occasionally pausing when she reached a part of him that was concealed behind healing cords, her delicate eyebrows flickering slightly into a frown each time. She only ceased her actions when her finger reached the part of Hiei's body that was level with her neck.

"Oh my goodness!" she yelped, retracting her finger and catching it in her other hand as though it had been burned. "He's completely naked in there! I should look away!"

Mukuro arched her eyebrow expectant of the girl following through with her own advice; but instead she stood perfectly still, her mouth slightly open and her eyes staring.

"I don't believe this…" Mukuro muttered.

Surely somebody somewhere was watching her right now and laughing, she thought darkly. This just had to be some sick bastard's idea of a joke. When the girl still did not move after a considerable amount of time, her eyes at risk of drying up as she had not so much as blinked, Mukuro moved a hand in front of the girl's face to block out what she could not stop staring at.

"It's quite something, isn't it?" the girl whispered.

Mukuro tensed as soft fingertips curled over her hand and pulled it down slightly, the girl lifting herself up onto her tiptoes to look over Mukuro's hand at what lay beyond it.

"It's like he's growing a third leg in there!"

"Alright, that does it!"

Mukuro moved her hand to the girl's shoulder furthest from her, grabbing a handful of her kimono and yanking her around hard. She squeaked out something that sounded like "oopsie" as she staggered around, but Mukuro ignored it entirely, marching out of the room, dragging the girl with her. Apparently Hiei had not only failed to erase the girl's memories, but he had also apparently led the girl to believe that he was someone who would appreciate her sympathy – which was beyond cruel, since she was clearly simple-minded and soft-hearted.

Apparently this was one mess Mukuro was going to have to fix for Hiei, since he was inexplicably incapable of doing it himself.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Mukuro has rather a lot to say to Botan, who rather doesn't want to hear it, and makes a bit of a fool of herself as a consequence. **Chapter 21: The Opinions.**

 **A/N:** I would like to stress at this point that I don't intend to vilify Mukuro in this fic. I think she is an awesome character, and I think it was quite crap that she came into the series so late. Just wanted to point that out because it might seem like I'm having a go at her, but I'm really not.


	21. The Opinions

**A/N:** _Damn! I Wish I Was Your Lover_ by Sophie B Hawkins, lyrics shamelessly butchered in the second part of this chapter.

 **Recap:** Yusuke advised Botan how she should deal with her feelings for Hiei, and Botan chased after an injured Hiei after his match, following him all the way back to Mukuro's territory, where she then spent far too long staring at his… "Third leg"… (Damn you, Botan!)

* * *

 **Chapter 21: The Opinions**

Botan stumbled after Mukuro, a vague sense of concern creeping up on her as she was dragged along corridor after corridor. She had stowed herself away aboard the transport bug carrying Hiei back to the fortress quite successfully, but sneaking her way into the fortress itself had been quite a task. The guards had asked a lot of questions, but had done surprisingly little to prevent her from reaching her goal, their words only delaying her progress rather than halting it altogether. When she had finally reached Hiei in the healing chamber her heart had missed a beat: he looked quite pitiful, suspended in a green liquid with a mask over his mouth and nose and clumps of healing cords wound around the worst of his injuries. Her concern had been genuine, but for some reason, she seemed to have infuriated Mukuro, and she was starting to realise just how terrible a thing that actually was.

"In here," Mukuro said, roughly pulling her around into a room and releasing her suddenly.

Botan stumbled forwards, landing onto all fours. Mukuro continued past her at a brisk pace, and as she lifted her head, Botan realised that she was in the same room she had been taken to the night she had gone to demon world to retrieve the mystic whistle from Hiei. Mukuro threw herself down onto the large white seat at the back of the room, and a very muscular demon in heavy armour appeared from nowhere with a tray of tea. Mukuro wordlessly took a bowl from the tray and motioned for him to leave her side.

Botan slowly stood up, brushing the excess dirt and dust from her clothing – she was glad that Koenma could not see her then, as she had now ruined two kimonos in one day.

"Tea, Miss?"

Botan screamed involuntarily at the brusque voice at her side, turning to stare fearfully at the tray being held out towards her. She looked first at the proffered bowl of tea resting on the tray before looking up at the purple eyes of the demon holding it. She then looked across the room at Mukuro.

"Take it," she said flatly.

"Oh, well alrighty then, thank you very much," Botan said quietly, bowing her head politely to Mukuro.

She turned and bowed to the demon before accepting the tea. Even though he was wearing a helmet that covered most of his head she was sure that he was pulling a face at her as she took the tea, but she smiled at him sweetly and he moved on, leaving the room and leaving her alone with Mukuro. She turned to smile at Mukuro, who was staring back at her blankly.

"Sit," she ordered, pointing downwards.

Botan shuffled over to the reclining leather seat on the other side of the desk Mukuro's chair sat behind, easing herself into it carefully.

"I don't know who you are, or why you keep appearing here," Mukuro began. "But I don't like it."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Botan said, placing her bowl carefully down onto the edge of the desk. "I just came to see Hiei–"

"That's the part I don't like the most," Mukuro cut her off. "Clearly you don't know exactly who or even what Hiei is, because if you did, I am certain you would not be here right now."

Botan chewed at her lip, suppressing the urge to tell Mukuro that actually she did know quite a lot about who and what Hiei was, and that she had actually known him longer than Mukuro herself had.

"Clearly you are a human, and not one of any great significance from what I can tell, though obviously spirit world has a use for you," Mukuro continued. "I assume you know Hiei through his association with the spirit detectives in the living world?"

Botan nodded and made a show of lifting her bowl to her lips. She pretended to take a sip before lowering it again. She did not wish to appear rude by not drinking it, but equally she was a little wary of the smell emanating from her cup: she did not suspect that it was poisoned or anything so sinister, but it smelt as though the beverage had been laced with something alcoholic, and Botan rarely drank and so was quite susceptible to becoming outrageously drunk on minute quantities of alcohol; and getting drunk was the last thing she needed to do in her current predicament.

"And you've seen him fight the bad guys and rescue the good guys like a proper little hero," Mukuro continued, before gulping down some of her own tea. "I'm not saying that Hiei is not an honourable man, because he is. He is also loyal and obviously very strong. However, his status as a fighter and ally of the spirit detectives should not be romanticised."

Botan choked a little, almost wondering it she had accidentally drunk some of the tea.

"Excuse me?" she said faintly. "I-I don't think I understand."

"I can tell that you have some sort of attachment to Hiei, and let me start by assuring you that it is one-sided now, and it always will be that way," Mukuro replied. "If you were a demon of any sort of strength I would have happily let you find that out for yourself, but you seem like a frail, soft-hearted creature, and I hope you understand that I am being blunt with you as a means to be kind. If what I am telling you is hurtful, you should be grateful, because it is nothing compared to the physical, mental and emotional hurt you will suffer if you insist on pursuing Hiei."

"Oh," Botan said softly, pretending to drink her tea again.

"I have no qualms with a powerless human girl like you… Do you have a name?"

"Yes, my name's Botan."

"Bo… Of course your name's Botan, it wasn't exactly going to be something intimidating, was it?"

Botan tilted her head curiously and Mukuro waved a hand dismissively.

"Never mind," she said. "Botan, Hiei has been living in this fortress for the last few years, and during that time, I've seen more of his activities than he thinks. I know what he does to women and I know what he does with women, and trust me when I say that he would break a woman like you, physically, mentally and emotionally. You are clearly a gentle and caring sort of girl, you've probably never felt hurt or suffered tragedy in your life, and this probably seems quite difficult for you to accept. But trust me, chasing the idea of being able to "rescue" a man, or to change his ways to make him "happy" is never a good idea. I'm guessing by the look on your face that some of what I'm saying sounds familiar: you think Hiei is someone with a heart as gentle and loving as your own, but that it's hidden beneath his harsh character. You think that you can bring out that tenderness. You think you can save him from himself."

Botan thought about what she had done with The Stolen Moment, about how she had risked the futures of everyone dear to her for the small chance of being able to change Hiei's tragic past. She thought about the night she had accused him of not telling Yukina who he was because he was scared of rejection. She thought about how she had told him that she loved him: and how he had refuted her feelings as though they disgusted him. That was the night he had made it clear to her that what he wanted from her was exactly the opposite of what she wanted from him. She wanted love and tenderness whilst he wanted the bragging rights for having defiled a ferry girl.

Botan took a sip from her tea. It did contain alcohol, and it stung her nose and burned her throat to drink it back.

She took another, larger, mouthful and quickly swallowed it down.

"Be careful where you tread, Botan," Mukuro continued. "There's an old human saying I find oddly relevant in this situation: fools rush in where angels dare to tread."

"Ha!" Botan blurted, almost spilling some of her tea into her lap.

Mukuro's blue eye widened as it glared across the room at her. Botan quickly composed herself, though inwardly she could still feel a dark chuckle threatening as she considered the irony of Mukuro's choice of idiom.

"Anyway," Mukuro said, narrowing her eye again. "I'm doing this as a favour to you. Find yourself a gentle and soft-hearted man, someone more like yourself. Chasing after Hiei will only bring you a lot of pain. In that respect, I'm perhaps more fortunate than you: I learned at a very young age that some men who seem honourable and good can cause you pain. It's probably harder for you to learn that lesson so late in life. I sympathise. But I also don't want to see you around here again. If you keep intentionally coming here, the best that you can hope for is to be killed swiftly. I mean you no harm, but there are plenty of others who would do terrible things to a clean human girl like you."

"I understand Ma'am," Botan said with a small nod.

"Well, just to be absolutely sure that you do, let me tell you one more thing," Mukuro said. "Anger and passion are often one and the same. Demons are very powerful beings, and if you know Yusuke Urameshi, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that his strength is at its peak when he is passionate about something. You've seen what his passion can do, and he was born human and has learnt how to control his power. Hiei's entire life has been about becoming stronger and more powerful. He has never needed to learn to hold back or to control his power, and that applies to when he is with a woman."

"Have you…?"

Botan almost kicked herself for even starting to ask that question. She did not dare finish it, but nor did she move to retract it. It was out there now, she decided, she might as well just wait and see if Mukuro would answer her. Mukuro's eye thinned a little and she cracked the knuckles of her real hand a little too loudly. Botan gulped down some more of her tea.

"No," Mukuro eventually answered. "I am Hiei's superior, and knowing and seeing how he has treated other women he has slept with, I wouldn't take that step. He would never respect me again if I did."

Botan gulped down some more tea, her eyes watering slightly as it burned all the way down her gullet.

"And since we're being completely honest with each other, Botan," Mukuro continued. "I've noticed your scent on Hiei more than once."

Botan finished her tea.

"And I saw the way he looked at you the day you came here asking him for a whistle, or whatever it was. Honestly Botan, I don't think he sees you as anything but another conquest. He wouldn't ever force you into anything, but trust me when I say that if you give in to him, you will regret it."

Botan tapped her bowl against the desk.

"Can I have some more tea, please?" she asked.

Mukuro gave a small smile before pushing a button by the side of her chair.

"I can see that you're upset," she said gently. "But understand that I mean everything as a kindness to you. There is a lot of hurt in all three worlds, it's quite… Quaint to see somebody whose life is relatively devoid of agony and tragedy. Go back to the living world and smile and enjoy your life with people more like yourself. I don't believe in romance myself, but the late Raizen seemed very fond of it, and I still have a great amount of respect for him. I believe he wasted his life and greatness on romance, but the fact that he did must mean something. Go and prove him right and have a wonderful, happy life falling in love with someone who will love you back."

Botan's eyes were a little blurry. She was slightly tearful, but she was unsure why exactly. It could be from the heat in her cheeks from the alcohol. It could be because she was upset that Mukuro was basically telling her that Hiei would never be interested in her romantically. Or maybe it was because she was talking about poor Raizen, who had died because of a woman he had loved so long ago, and only been able to spend one night of passion with.

"Raizen was a thoroughly decent guy," she said suddenly.

"Yes, he was," Mukuro flatly replied.

"I mean, he was just smashing, wasn't he?"

The armoured demon entered the room then with another tray, which he brought to Mukuro. She took it from him and motioned for him to leave again, before placing the tray down on the desk between herself and Botan. Botan frowned at the tray curiously, finding only a large, squared glass bottle and two shot glasses filled with brown liquid.

"Oh dear, I was sure I ordered a bowl of tea," she said, scratching at her head.

"It wasn't the tea you were asking for, it was the rum that was through it," Mukuro flatly replied, lifting up the two glasses. "Here, knock yourself out."

She handed one glass to Botan, who took it without further question. She sipped at it, stopping after only the smallest amount had entered her mouth, the fumes alone choking her.

"Best to drink it in one shot, Botan," Mukuro advised her. "That why they call them "shot glasses"."

Botan nodded and tossed back her head, swallowing down the contents of her glass in one gulp. She shuddered as she lowered her head again, pushing her empty glass into Mukuro's free hand with one hand and pulling the full glass from Mukuro with her other hand. She was sure she saw Mukuro's face flicker slightly, but she blamed it on the blur in her eyes from the sting of the alcohol and she gladly sunk down the second glass. She pushed the second empty back into Mukuro's artificial hand and began reaching for the bottle on the desk but a gentle push to her shoulder from Mukuro sent her into the back of her chair, her hand closing around empty space.

"Let's get you back to the living world," Mukuro said sternly. "And don't ever let me see you around here again, understand?"

Botan saluted her, silently wondering why she looked so serious.

* * *

"That old dog has chained you up all right!"

Mukuro groaned, but walked on ahead of her two men.

"Give you everything you need, to live inside a twisted cage!"

Mukuro turned a corner, catching a glimpse of the two behind her as they followed a second later. One was still looking completely bemused, the other was starting look irritated as he supported the ridiculous lush of a girl over his shoulder.

"Sleep beside in empty rage, I had a dream I was your hero!"

Quite apart from the atonal yelling she seemed to think was a singing voice, the girl was grating on everyone's nerves with her insistence on attempting to slap out the rhythm of the song she was attempting to sing against every wall they passed.

"Damn!"

Mukuro almost missed a step, surprised to hear such a word leave the girl's mouth.

"I wish I was your lover! I'd rock you 'til the daylight comes, make sure you are smiling and warm!"

"Aw for fuck's sake," one of the men behind Mukuro grumbled.

"I'll do such things to ease your pain, free your mind and you won't feel ashamed!"

Mercifully, they were almost at the exit, where Mukuro hope she would find a transport ready to ship the girl back to the nearest portal: and may the gods have mercy on the driver who would be lumbered with her for the next forty minutes.

"Open up, gonna come inside, gonna fill you up, make you cry."

It was not just the tone-deaf droning or the slapping at the walls: it was also her specific choice of song.

"This monkey can't stand to see you black and blue."

The choice of song that just got more ironic and more relevant with every line she slurred out.

"Don't say you'll stay, 'cause then you go away! Damn! I wish I was your lover! Shucks! For me there is no other, you're the only shoe that fits, I can't imagine I'll grow out of it… Give me an hour to kiss you, walk through heaven's door I'm sure, we don't need no doctor to feel much better, let me in forever and ever and ever and ever… And ever and ever…"

She seemed to momentarily forget both the lyrics and the rhythm, and Mukuro clearly heard both of her men sighing in relief. Fortunately the transport was ready and waiting, and as the soldier carrying Botan began to climb onboard it to dump her there, Mukuro distinctly heard the stupid girl still muttering some of her song to herself.

"Wish I was your lover… Make sure you're smiling… Ease your pain… Free your mind… Won't feel ashamed… Come inside… Make you cry…"

There was a dull thud followed by the groan of someone being winded and losing consciousness simultaneously. It was a little harsh for the soldier to have thrown Botan down like that, Mukuro thought, but it was also a mercy to the ears of those who had been suffering her drunken antics for the last few minutes. As the transport took off, Mukuro could not help but wonder how Hiei had come to be involved with such a character. On the surface she ought to have been his worst nightmare, yet he had seemed to feel obliged to protect her, since he had let her return to demon world without erasing her memories of the place.

"Idiot," she muttered, shaking her head.

Though she was unsure exactly who she was referring to: Botan, Hiei or herself.

* * *

Botan woke suddenly. It was the most unpleasant awakening she had ever suffered, and it had ended the most unpleasant sleep she had ever endured. She was wet and cold, which probably meant that the thing that had hit her to wake her was actually water and not a plank of wood as it had felt like. Wiping the water from her eyes she blinked against the brilliant blue sky overhead, her first thought being that she was somehow back in the living world. Her second thought was that the shadow standing over her seemed quite malevolent.

"Gracious Botan, you look terrible."

The sound of the voice talking to her was even more of a rude awakening than the bucket-load of water he had just thrown over her.

"I've been looking for you for over three hours!"

He threw down the bucket, letting it roll away. Botan pushed herself up, folding her legs beneath herself to sit on one hip. A languid survey of her surroundings told her that she was back on that same farm where The Stolen Moment had been buried. The hole she and Kuwabara had dug had been filled in and it looked as though the whole area had been altered somehow: but the light was so bright and her head was throbbing from looking about too quickly, so she did not bother to check the specifics.

"Get up."

Botan did not wait to be told again, hurriedly scrambling to her feet. Her head pulsed painfully and when she tried to talk she found herself unable, since somehow her tongue had become glued to the back of her throat.

"Oh goodness Botan, you look even worse in the light of day."

Botan blinked several times to clear her vision, finally seeing the profile of an almost unnaturally attractive man standing next to her. His eyes were looking down the hill, but she knew that he was addressing her.

"I'm sorry," she said weakly. "I was going to fly up to the… Tree to… Save…"

"You were going to fly up to the site of the group 44 battle royal to recover Hiei's unconscious body," he said sternly. "With this, I assume?"

He lifted up his other hand, holding up the broken remains of her oar.

"Yusuke brought it back to me," he said, meeting her eyes for the first time since her awakening.

"I'm so sorry Lord Koenma," she said, hanging her head. "I wasn't thinking. I was just so worried."

"Your concern does you credit, Botan," he replied. "But your lack of good judgement does not."

She nodded her understanding, touching one hand to her temple as it ached from her actions.

"I'm sorry Sir," she said again.

"I know you've always taken a personal interest in the spirit detective team, Botan, but you have to learn to draw the line at running off around demon world on your own," Koenma said firmly. "I'm just as angry with Yusuke for letting you go. Not all demons are as noble as Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei. Do you know what some of them would do if they got their hands on a ferry girl?"

"I know Sir, it was very silly of me."

"The border roads are safe because of the guard, but running through the middle of a battlefield where demons are fighting to the death to determine their new ruler can and will get you killed. Or worse."

Botan nodded.

"I don't want to see anything bad happen to you, Botan."

Koenma placed a hand on her shoulder and she dared to look up at him.

"Let's go home," he said gently. "You can um… Take some time to recover and get cleaned up – again – and then come and see me, I have a little mission for you. In the living world."

"Alrighty, that sounds splendid!"

Koenma smiled, slipping her hand across to her other shoulder, bringing his arm to rest around her back. Together they started towards the portal. Botan was surprised that he was being so lenient, and she suspected that the "mission" he had planned was actually something quite horrid as punishment for her behaviour, but she decided to simply enjoy the moment.

"Lord Koenma?" she asked, turning to look up at him.

"Yes, Botan?" he responded, looking down at her from the corner of his eye.

"You haven't got your pacifier," she pointed out.

"Oh, I uh…"

He fumbled in his pocket and produced it with a radiant grin.

"It still hasn't restored to the same level it was at when I used it to revive Amanuma," he said, turning the pacifier over in his fingers. "I guess it will take another five hundred years to get it there again."

"But Sir, what you did that day was a wonderful thing," Botan pointed out. "You have such a good heart, Sir."

"A soft heart, some might say."

"A soft…"

Botan turned away from Koenma, touching a hand to her mouth. Soft-hearted: that was what Mukuro had called her. And she had told her to find a man more like herself. Did she mean that Botan should be with a man like Koenma?

Botan turned back to look at Koenma, finding him still smiling at her. She knew that he held her in very high regard, but they had worked together so long – and for most of that time she had known him as a toddler – that he seemed more like a brother to her than anything else. She could not even begin to think about being with him or anyone like him romantically.

Hiei, on the other hand, was a completely different matter.

"Botan, are you okay?"

Botan hurriedly covered her little stumble with a smile.

"Fine, Sir!" she said cheerfully.

It was not entirely a lie, since she was physically fine, but her stumble had been from a crisis on conscience. Just thinking about Hiei's name was enough to set her nerves aflame, and it took her a considerable amount of time to calm them again. Ever since they had first kissed she had been thinking about him physically in progressively more detail, her mind occasionally showing images of things she had never thought about before and had never expected to.

His words that fateful night on the beach had been hurtful, but his touch had not, as Mukuro had implied it ought to have been. She could still remember how he had pulled at the ties in her hair and immediately stopped when he thought he was hurting her. He had been so much gentler after that, easing her hair loose about her shoulders. And even when he had been a little rough with her, it had felt wonderful. She had trusted him completely, believed that those strong hands would never hurt her, she was happy to let him take control and dictate the direction and pace of their love making.

Botan gripped her fists at her sides and inhaled sharply through her nose, trying to ignore the weakness on her knees and the longing in the pit of her stomach. Koenma appeared not to have noticed her second faltering, so she pushed onwards, trying to keep her mind off of Hiei: though that was difficult, as she was still concerned about his condition following his battle with Shura. He had looked so frail in that healing chamber, so weakened, so vulnerable, so naked and so surprisingly well endowed.

Botan's fingernails began to bite into the palms of her hands and one of her eyes had developed a slight twitch.

It was quite shocking though, she thought to herself. She had never actually thought about what Hiei might look like naked, but she had never expected him to be so big. Surely someone of his stature should not be that size? Was there not some sort of rule about things being proportional?

"Oh God…"

"Botan?"

"Eh?"

"Did you just say something?"

"No, Lord Koenma Sir."

"It felt like you tripped, too."

"Oh, silly me!"

Botan grinned at her boss, but even she could see that he looked less than convinced. This was becoming ridiculous, she told herself. Something was going to have to give.

* * *

Botan zoomed around in a loop in the air, whooping in delight when she reached the top of her turn and almost fell from her oar. It was great to be airborne again: though she did miss her old oar. The new one Koenma had given her was not quite the same texture or colour as her old, well-used oar had been, but she was sure that a few more years of zipping about the skies of the living world would wear down the edges and make it feel more homely. The task she had been set was a simple one, and since Koenma had not placed any urgency or specific deadline on it, she was intending to take as long as possible to complete it.

After a cold shower, another nap and another change of clothes, Botan had started to remember that she had in fact consumed the bowl of alcoholic tea Mukuro had given her, and possibly something else after it. She could remember finishing the first bowl and asking for more, but after that all she could really remember was being really upset to hear about Raizen's death – even though she had known about it for three years already – and discussing how relevant she thought a certain song was to Hiei's relationship with Mukuro. Unfortunately she could not remember the exact song, why she had found it so apt at the time, or even decide what she actually thought the relationship between Hiei and Mukuro was anyway.

She suspected that she might have gotten just a little bit tipsy and perhaps acted a little foolishly. However, she was confident that she had covered it up well enough that Mukuro had not noticed.

And Mukuro had seemed like a nice lady, Botan thought to herself as she began to fly over the city limits of Tokyo. That had been the first time she had actually had a conversation with the former demon world king – or queen, Botan was unsure how that title worked, since Mukuro had allowed others to believe that she was a man for many centuries – and Botan had found Mukuro to be as fair and honest as Yusuke had said she was. She was also a little blunt and slightly condescending, but Botan decided that Mukuro had probably only seemed that way because of their respective positions: one was an influential, upper S-class demon who had once owned and ruled a third of demon world, and the other was just another ferry girl. Botan believed that Mukuro had, as she had said, meant well by her words; but for some reason, Botan did not fully accept them.

Botan began tapping a finger against her oar to a rhythm she could vaguely hear in her mind, absentmindedly humming along slightly when snippets of the accompanying melody came back to her. She was doing her best to concentrate on anything other than Hiei himself, since her concern over his condition combined with her ever escalating emotions towards him made it impossible to stay airborne whenever she allowed him to enter her thoughts.

Though it was alarmingly difficult for her to keep him from her thoughts entirely. She was surprised that she succeeded long enough to make it into the city, but she was not surprised when she began sinking less than a mile from her goal. She allowed herself to descend then, deciding that she could just walk the rest of the way, bringing herself as close to her desired landing point as possible before hopping down and banishing her oar. As her feet hit the ground, Botan found herself humming a little more of the tune, as though her memory of it increased when she was no longer able to drum out the beat against her oar.

A short walk passed wondering exactly what Hiei's injuries had been inside that healing chamber found Botan outside a familiar door. Her first thought as she reached the door was surprise to find it closed, and her second thought was worry. If the person she sought was not behind that door, something was possibly amiss.

"Knock, knock!" she said brightly, rapping her fist against the door.

Botan put her hands behind her back and waited patiently for a response. When none came she tried knocking again, before eventually just trying the door handle. Once she had confirmed that the door was locked she turned and started to leave, deciding to try searching an entirely different location: but as she left the building altogether, Botan noticed a sign directing her towards another familiar building, and she found herself following it, soon bringing herself in front of another familiar door.

"Knock, knock?" she said faintly, knocking quietly on the door.

She was only half-sure that she even wanted to be where she was, part of her hoping that her call would not be answered. However within a matter of seconds the door was opened and she was standing face-to-face with Keiko Yukimura.

"Botan!" Keiko greeted her, breaking into a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Well actually I came to see Kuwabara, but he wasn't in his room," Botan confessed. "And I thought that since I was here I might as well come and see you."

"Come in!"

"Oh I shouldn't really, I can't stop long, I–"

"Come in, Botan!"

Keiko grabbed one of Botan's sleeves and dragged her into her room, closing the door behind her.

"Oh my, this is nothing at all like Kuwabara's room," Botan muttered as she looked about herself.

"Why, because it's tidy or because it doesn't smell like feet?" Keiko asked.

Botan turned to her, realising that it was a joke as she saw Keiko smile.

"Oh yes I see!" she said. "Of course!"

"So what do you need Kuwabara for?" Keiko asked.

"Oh nothing really," Botan replied. "Koenma just wanted me to deliver a replacement communicator to him, since his own one was lost or broken during the last mission."

Keiko nodded, though Botan could tell that she had not really heard her reply.

"How's Yusuke?" she asked.

"He's good," Botan replied.

"I wish I could have gone to watch him fight, but he said it's too dangerous for me to go to demon world," Keiko continued. "And he said it wouldn't do the whole human-demon relations any good… Though I'm not really sure why…"

"Oh don't worry, Keiko," Botan assured her. "Yusuke was one the first to finish his battle royal and earn himself a place in the first round. He came to see me immediately after, and there was barely a scratch on him."

"I do worry about him," Keiko muttered. "What about the others?"

"Kurama made it through too. I haven't seen him since, but I believe he's just fine."

Keiko's face changed slightly, and for the first time since she had entered the room Botan thought she saw a glint of cheerfulness in Keiko's eyes.

"And Hiei?" she asked, a small grin tugging up one corner of her mouth.

Botan found herself falling into a sitting position on the edge of Keiko's bed, which she covered with a smile as though it had been her intention to sit there.

"He made it through too," she replied. "Just."

"Just?"

Keiko sat down next to Botan, who turned her head away slightly to avoid having to see the grin Keiko was developing.

"Distract me from worrying about Yusuke, Botan," Keiko said. "Tell me how many times you've kissed Hiei since we last talked. And tell me if that has anything to do with why you disappeared on Valentine's Day without even saying goodbye."

Botan chewed at her lip a little before forcing a cheerful smile and turning to face Keiko fully.

"I didn't say goodbye?" she asked. "Oh silly me! What a forgetful little kitten I am!"

She pulled a strained cat face and pawed at the air, but Keiko looked less than convinced by her act.

"Come on Botan, it's not everyday a girl gets to witness first-hand love blooming between a demon and an angel," she said flatly. "Tell me the fairy tale and cheer me up."

Botan's face dropped.

"Fairy tale?" she echoed.

"Yes," Keiko said with a nod. "I think it's so romantic that you two are in love!"

"We're not in love."

Keiko and Botan both frowned.

"You didn't even have to think about that," Keiko said.

Botan shrugged, disguising another wave of hurt behind a smile.

"Hiei doesn't believe in love," she said. "He doesn't love me, and I don't love him."

"Really?" Keiko said, her face twisting sceptically.

"Maybe…" Botan vaguely replied.

"You seemed a lot keener on him the last time we spoke," Keiko pressed.

"I don't think it's love," Botan insisted. "Not even on my part. All I do now is think about him physically. Especially since I saw him naked yesterday…"

Keiko's eyebrows shot up and her eyes doubled in size but Botan did not notice her shock.

"Well…" she said as she slowly recovered her initial surprise. "Maybe it's just unresolved sexual tension."

Botan turned sharply to Keiko, inadvertently slapping her over the face with her ponytail. Keiko made a noise of complaint but soon shook it off when she saw the way Botan was looking at her.

"Oh," she said, her grin returning. "Did I hit the nail on the head? It's just physical attraction? Botan, I never would have thought your mind would work that way!"

Botan began to blush but Keiko laughed.

"I'm proud of you!"

Botan faltered as Keiko slapped her on the shoulder, reminding her a little too much of Yusuke.

"But it's awful, Keiko!" she protested. "Yusuke said that the only cure is…"

"Sex?" Keiko offered.

"Keiko!" Botan gasped. "How could you say that? You're such a nice girl!"

Keiko's face twitched and her eyes moved from Botan for a second as though she was thinking something absurd.

"Botan, everybody knows that the cure for unresolved sexual tension is to have sex with the guy!" she recovered. "…Though in this case, it probably isn't such a good idea. You're really naïve and he's probably…"

"Probably what?" Botan asked.

"I don't know," Keiko replied. "I don't think I've ever actually even spoken to Hiei, and I bet even Yusuke can count the number of words he's ever exchanged with Hiei on two hands. I don't know enough about him to give you an honest opinion. From the outside, it looks pretty dangerous, but if you know him better than that and you think you could… Resolve the tension without getting yourself killed, then you should go for it."

"…I should go for it?"

"Yeah. You won't ever get over it if you don't. Every time you see him it will just get worse."

"Well that wouldn't be good."

Botan turned her head from Keiko, looking up at a poster on the wall next to her. Unlike Kuwabara's room, which was mostly covered with Megallica posters, Keiko's walls were decorated with study planners, a periodic table and campus event schedules. The study planner was littered with different coloured tapes and stars indicating different classes and exams: but Botan noticed that Keiko had also written on a few key dates, including birthdays. Birthdays made Botan think of gifts, and gifts made her think of Valentine's Day, and Valentine's Day made her think of White Day.

"Did Yusuke remember White Day this year?" she asked, turning back to Keiko.

Keiko's eyes went wide and she paled slightly. Botan smiled sympathetically.

"Even though he always forgets, he does care deeply for you, Keiko," she said, patting Keiko on the shoulder.

"He remembered this year," Keiko replied. "He bought me a watch and he booked us a holiday for after the tournament. I couldn't believe it!"

Botan could not believe it either.

"Hey, if you're going to see Kuwabara, you should ask him to show you the gift he gave Yukina," Keiko added, smirking mischievously.

"Oh dear…" Botan said slowly. "It wasn't another one of his little poems?"

Keiko nodded.

"…As bad as last year's?" Botan asked.

Keiko shook her head.

"Worse," she said quietly.

"Oh my…" Botan groaned. "Where is Kuwabara anyway?"

"He spends most of his time at Genkai's," Keiko replied. "He's there any time he doesn't have a class or exam. Yukina must be due next week or the week after, and he's getting like a kid at Christmas."

"Oh, how adorable!"

"Yeah, you would think so, but it's actually quite creepy."

"Oh."

Botan tried to block out thoughts of Kuwabara fussing over Yukina even more so than usual, but a persistent image of him skipping around Genkai's temple in a pink frilly apron with a vacuum cleaner in one hand and a tray of tea and cakes balanced on the other remained at the front of her mind despite her efforts.

"I suppose I should go," she said, rising to her feet. "It was lovely to see you Keiko."

"Make sure Yusuke doesn't get himself killed," Keiko replied, standing at her side.

"Of course!" Botan agreed, nodding her head.

"And I hope you manage to figure out your little UST problem."

Botan nodded and forced a smile.

"I'm close to something," she replied.

Keiko frowned at her curiously, but even Botan herself was unsure what she had actually meant.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** It's confusion all round for Botan: first she learns something very interesting about Yukina's relationship with Hiei, then she volunteers to do something significant for Yukina and finally the time has come for her to repay her debt to Kurama… **Chapter 22: The Favour**.


	22. The Favour

**Recap:** Mukuro warned Botan to stay away from Hiei and Keiko advised Botan to "resolve the tension". (Is that all? Why was the chapter so long?!)

* * *

 **Chapter 22: The Favour**

Botan sang wordlessly along to a tune she could not seem to get out of her head. She ducked down, taking herself in for a gradual landing, her eyes widening a little as she noticed that, despite several weeks having passed, a change of season and a lack of prey, the vine of the guilty was still lying in wait at the top of the temple steps at Genkai's temple. She wondered why it had not died back and why Kurama had left it there: maybe it was her responsibility to remove it, since she had been the one to plant it, she thought. She made a mental note to ask Kurama about it when she returned to demon world, as it seemed unnecessary, and it was likely to end up ensnaring Kuwabara if he was visiting the temple as often as Keiko had implied.

As she landed outside the door, Botan heard voices coming from the direction of the water garden, and so took herself in that direction, finding Kuwabara feeding the koi in the pond, and she could just see Yukina's head over the budding rosebushes.

"Hello!" she called.

Kuwabara stumbled slightly as though startled by her cry, before turning to give her a half-hearted smile.

"Oh hey, Botan," he called over to her, sounding more than a little bored.

"Botan!" Yukina yelped.

Botan and Kuwabara both turned to the little ice maiden in surprise at the suddenness and volume of her cry. Her head began to bob quickly along the length of the bushes, and Botan started to walk over to meet her, stopping short as Yukina rounded the bushes into full view. Botan's eyes almost popped out of her head and her jaw dropped as she saw how big Yukina actually was. Her shock was so great, it took her several seconds to realise that Yukina was running towards her as fast as her legs would carry her in her current state.

"Oh sweetie, don't run!" she recovered, dashing over to meet her by the koi pond.

"I'm so happy you came to see me!" Yukina cried.

Botan gasped as Yukina grabbed her arms around her. It was the most unusual hug Botan had ever received, since Yukina's short arms combined with her large bump made it almost impossible for her to actually hug anything and, despite Yukina's usually calm and gentle nature, her embrace was surprisingly fierce.

"It's wonderful to see you, Yukina," Botan said awkwardly, putting her arms around Yukina's shoulders.

"It's been so long, where have you been?" Yukina asked, lifting her head to look up at Botan.

Botan frowned. Had it been so long? No longer than it had been since she had last seen Keiko or Kuwabara, she decided, and neither of them had been so happy to see her.

In fact, Botan thought a little sadly, nobody had ever been as happy to see her as Yukina was right then; not even after she had woken up from nearly dying after her disastrous time travel experience.

"I was ferrying souls," she eventually answered. "But my goodness, look at you! I can't believe how far along you are already!"

Botan tried to remember what Kurama had told her about ice maiden pregnancies, silently hoping that Yukina's size was not indicative that she had become pregnant before she was meant to and was actually expecting twins. She cast a glance at Kuwabara, who was looking as confused as she felt, but the concern in his eyes told her that he truly did care for Yukina on a deeper level than most gave him credit for, and he was unlikely to have overstepped the mark with her.

"I've missed you, Botan," Yukina said, her tone unusually firm.

"Well isn't that sweet!" Botan replied. "…And unexpected… And novel…"

"Will you be here when the baby comes?"

Botan paused, realising then that, despite having known about Yukina's pregnancy for more than ten weeks, she had never actually given any thought to the birth or even the baby itself.

"Well certainly!" she replied. "If you want me to be. I would be honoured."

"Thank you, Botan," Yukina said, smiling warmly. "It would mean so much to me if you were with me during the ceremony."

"The… The ceremony?"

"It's tradition for an ice maiden to have her best friend at her side when she gives birth."

"Oh my, how perfectly sweet of you!"

Botan pulled Yukina into a tighter hug, almost wanting to cry at her words. She had never thought that the ice maiden held her in such high regard: she had never thought that anyone did or ever would, and the feeling of being so well liked and respected after the rejection she had suffered recently was almost too much for her.

Botan kissed the top of Yukina's head, inadvertently breathing in the scent of her hair. She smelled like fresh air, water and faintly of a variety of different flowers. As she held Yukina, Botan began to feel the temperature of her body through her kimono: she was cold. It was not as though she was cold in a way that would make her uncomfortable, more that her skin was cool to the touch because that was her natural state as an apparition of the ice village. Her hair was the same colour as always, but looking down at it so closely, Botan could see that it almost shimmered in the light, as though her entire head was a crystal of ice, reflecting back faint rainbows of colour.

She was the complete opposite of her brother.

Yukina lifted her head to look Botan in the eye, smiling at her again. Botan could not return her smile as she looked into her red, red eyes, the same radiant shade of deep scarlet as Hiei's, set in a face of porcelain skin that gave the false impression of vulnerability. Botan touched one hand to Yukina's cheek, gasping slightly in surprise as she realised that Yukina's skin felt exactly the same as Hiei's, only hers was cool and soothing unlike his which was hot and enticing.

"I don't know if I should be turned on by this or not."

"You dirty fool!"

"Ow!"

Botan and Yukina both turned their heads to see Kuwabara cowering over with his hands clutching the back of his head, Shizuru standing by him, her fist still poised in the air.

"Shizuru, I didn't know you were here too!" Botan said.

"Somebody had to give the poor girl a break," Shizuru replied, meeting her eyes. "Yukina's on her own up here with even Puu gone, and even though she's too nice to admit it, I'm pretty sure she gets bored of only ever having the love rat here to listen to."

"Love rat?" Kuwabara whined.

"Oh no, I love listening to Kazuma's voice," Yukina insisted.

"Sure you do," Shizuru said, winking at Botan. "Come on, I'll make some tea, let's go inside."

"Oh yeah, I always get thirsty watching all these ponds," Kuwabara said.

"You're not finished out here," Shizuru sternly replied.

He started to argue but when Shizuru narrowed her eyes into dangerous slits of brown he backed down and returned to his task of feeding the fish. Shizuru turned from him, her face instantly softening as she looked over at Yukina and Botan again.

"Come on girls, let's go," she said gently.

Botan nodded and released Yukina, who moved to slip her arm through Botan's. It was an unusual thing for her to do, but Botan remembered that Kuroko had acted differently when she had become pregnant: it had been many years since Botan had been an assistant to spirit world's first human spirit detective, but she had never forgotten her first human friend. Botan had continued visiting Kuroko shortly after the birth of her second child, when her duties to Sensui and spirit world combined with Kuroko's wish to detach herself from her former job had led to Botan ceasing her visits. She did remember that Kuroko had often spoken about hormones affecting her behaviour though, and so she assumed that Yukina's clinginess was just that.

Inside the temple Shizuru set about making tea and Botan insisted that Yukina sit somewhere comfortable, almost pushing her into a plush armchair. Yukina eventually obliged, but clung onto Botan's arm, stopping her from moving to help Shizuru.

"Yukina, are you alright?" Botan asked her, curiosity eventually getting the better of her.

"Botan I'm really scared," Yukina quietly replied.

Botan glanced over at Shizuru, who was too far away to have heard Yukina's words, and was continuing on obliviously.

"Scared?" Botan asked, turning back to Yukina. "Of what?"

"Many things," Yukina insisted. "Will you help me?"

"Of course I will, sweetie," Botan said with a smile. "But could you be a dear and let go of my arm? My back is starting to hurt twisting over like this."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"That's alright."

Yukina released Botan's arm and Botan straightened up to her fullest height before starting towards the nearby sofa.

"Don't leave!" Yukina said urgently.

"I'm just sitting down," Botan assured her.

Botan sat on the sofa and offered Yukina a smile, but still Yukina looked worried, as though she was not happy about the distance between them.

"Now, what can I do for you?" Botan asked.

"Will you stay?" Yukina asked.

Botan's eyebrows began to rise but she stopped herself from giving the answer that first came to mind.

"I just came for a little visit, I have business in demon world with Lord Koenma," she said carefully. "I could maybe stay tonight, but definitely no longer."

"I miss you when you're not here, Botan," Yukina said.

Botan's eyebrows dropped down again into a frown: were those tears in Yukina's eyes?

"Well that's very flattering," she said.

"I feel very sad, like something is moving away from me and I can't reach it," Yukina whispered. "But I feel happier now that you're here. It's so strange."

"Yes, that is very strange…"

"I wish I could have spoken to Rui, I think about her so much as the time gets closer for…"

Yukina touched a hand to her swollen stomach, letting her actions finish her sentiment.

"Bingo!" Botan said, finding her smile again. "You miss your family! The baby is reminding you of those you left behind in the ice village! But weren't you going to write a letter to Rui?"

"I did."

Yukina purposefully turned her head towards a nearby fireplace, and following the direction of her gaze, Botan noticed an envelope sitting propped up atop the mantelpiece.

"Ah, I see," she said softly. "You did write the letter, but you have no way of delivering it to Rui."

"Mister Hiei never visits me any more."

Botan's eyes widened and she was silently glad that Yukina was still turned away then, as she was sure that her mouth was distorted in a look of concern and guilt that she did not want Yukina to see.

"I'm not sure Mister Hiei could have delivered your letter, Yukina," Botan tried. "I have heard that the ice village is heavily defended against intruders, especially those of the male variety."

"Yes that's true, but only Mister Hiei would know how to find the ice village," Yukina solemnly replied. "He has the gifted eye, he would be able to see through the clouds that hide the village from others."

Yukina turned then to look directly at Botan, her face too endearing to resist. Botan felt so sorry for her, so angry with Hiei for avoiding his sister on account of his own selfish, repressed feelings about her pregnancy, so overwhelmed to see that Yukina really did look exactly like her mother had and so confused about why Yukina was looking at her differently that day.

"I know where the ice village is."

Botan faltered slightly, wondering what warped part of her mind had decided to let her mouth say those words out loud.

"You do?" Yukina asked, her eyes growing larger and even more pitiful. "Botan, that's wonderful! Would you go there and deliver my letter to Rui?"

"Ah, um, uh…"

Botan held her breath, her first reaction being that she actually expected Hiei to appear in her head, scolding her telepathically for talking to his sister about her family. When he did not she breathed a sigh of relief and began planning how best to disappoint Yukina.

"I can't go to the ice village, Yukina," she said softly. "It's surrounded by demonic energy and the elders there conjure snow storms to ward off outsiders. I'm sure they would attack me before I even got close to the village itself."

"But you can fly on your oar, it would be easy for you to reach the village if you know where it is," Yukina replied. "And you have great spirit energy, you could create a barrier around yourself to protect you from the storms."

"…A barrier?" Botan mumbled. "Why didn't I think of that 99 years ago…?"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing! I was just thinking that I could create a barrier and I could fly to the village, but I would still not be welcome there, as an outsider. Ice maidens can be very powerful and very strict. If one of your people attacked me, I couldn't defend myself."

"But you won't need to! I'll give you something to identify you as my friend, and the elders will allow you free passage into the village!"

Botan quirked an eyebrow.

"Like what, the hirui stone that you no longer have?"

Yukina was mercifully unaffected by Botan's sarcastic remark, which she regretted as soon as it had left her lips.

"I wouldn't give you my hirui stone even if I did have it," Yukina replied. "The elders would think you had stolen it from me and were using it as a disguise to get into the village. Anyone who had sinister motives would take either my mother's stone or make me cry and take one of mine. But only a friend would take this."

Yukina reached around the back of her head and pulled loose the ties from her hair.

"This was my mother's, and before that it was my grandmother's," she said, holding out the red ribbon towards Botan.

Botan hesitated before reaching out to accept her offer. She had never studied the object in any great detail before, but holding it closer to her face she could see that it was a red ribbon strung through what looked like the carved and polished shell of one of demon world's tortoises. On its own it was relatively worthless, but its unique handmade design gave it value to the person who owned it. Yukina was right, Botan thought, it was the sort of thing a kidnapper with ulterior motives would not waste time on, but a friend would gift to someone they trusted.

"Will you do it?" Yukina asked. "I know it's so much to ask of you Botan, but it would make me so happy if you would take my letter to Rui."

Botan could not say no to those eyes. She got to her feet and crossed the room, still carrying Yukina's ribbon in one hand and collecting the letter in her other hand. She turned around and nodded, trying to force a smile.

"You can count on me, Yukina," she said.

"Oh, Botan!" Yukina gushed. "You've made me so happy!"

Botan's smile became genuine then.

"I'm going to help Shizuru with the tea –"

"Botan please say you'll stay tonight."

Botan frowned down at Yukina's fingers, which were almost painfully gripping into her arm.

"Well, alrighty!" she said. "Why not? Lord Koenma didn't tell me I had to go straight back, and the first round of the tournament doesn't start until the day after tomorrow anyway."

"Thank you," Yukina said, looking as though she might cry again. "I've been so worried, I know my brother has been badly hurt in a fight, but I feel much happier and safer with you here, Botan."

Botan opened her mouth to reassure Yukina again, but stopped short as she realised exactly what the little ice maiden had just said.

"You know that you're brother has been badly hurt?" she asked, again anticipating an enraged death threat to enter her mind at any moment. "But how do you know something like that?"

"Botan, he's not just my brother," Yukina replied, her face earnest and true. "He's my twin brother. Don't you know that twins share a sacred bond?"

"…Sacred bond?"

"I can feel when he is suffering."

Botan tried to keep the surprise from her face: that made quite a lot of sense, when she thought about it. Yukina had arrived at the dark tournament because she had felt that her brother was competing, and Hiei had known that Tarukane had tortured Yukina even though the wards outside of her prison had prevented him from seeing the details of her capture with his jagan eye.

"Okay dokay…" Botan said slowly. "Well I'll just go and help Shizuru with the tea now then."

Yukina smiled and finally released her hold, allowing Botan to hurry from the room to the kitchen, where she found Shizuru about to leave with a tray loaded with bowls and a pot of tea.

"Oh no," Botan said, taking the tray from her and carrying it back into the kitchen.

"Botan?" Shizuru began turning to watch her in utter bemusement. "What kind of crazy has gotten into you this time?"

Botan crept back across the room and slid the door shut before answering.

"Yukina said that she has a sacred bond with her brother because they are twins!" she hissed. "And she's acting so strangely because of her hormones: do you think that maybe Hiei might start getting broody?"

Shizuru almost fell over.

"Botan, I sometimes wonder how you exist," she groaned. "I've heard of being too stupid to be alive, but really…"

She sighed, taking hold of Botan's shoulders.

"She said they have a connection!" Botan whispered. "And Yukina is very pregnant and a little hormonal and sensitive… Oh my, what if she goes into labour during one of Hiei's fights? Oh goodness, that would be awful! Can you imagine? If he was trying to release the dragon and he started getting contractions?"

Shizuru tightened her grip before giving Botan a good hard shake, making her choke out a strangled cry and stagger about a little.

"Botan, you soft-hearted, soft-headed little girl," she said firmly once she had steadied Botan once more. "Hiei isn't stupid, even if he does sense his sister going into labour, he will deal with it. Now you maybe need to deal with this: Yukina has been acting up since you disappeared on Valentine's Day. My brother has been worried about her, but I didn't really see it until today. I have a theory: Yukina projects her physical trauma onto Hiei, and that is how he knows when she's in trouble, but I think for Hiei it works the other way around. I think he projects his emotional trauma onto her."

Botan touched a hand to her mouth and Shizuru slowly nodded.

"Yukina does really like you Botan," she continued. "But not so much so that she needs to be looking at you in the same way my brother looks at her."

Botan gasped.

"Oh goodness, now I understand completely!"

"There we go."

"Yukina is in love with me!"

Shizuru groaned so loudly Yukina called out from the other room to ask if she was alright.

"Not Yukina, Hiei, you idiot," Shizuru muttered before moving over to collect the tray of tea again.

Botan met her in the middle of the room, taking the tray from her and returning it to the kitchen counter.

"I'm not an idiot," she said, pouting slightly. "It's just that I know that Hiei isn't in love with me. I told him that… Well, I… On Valentine's Day, he said he thought that us being in love was ridiculous and he told me he would kill me if he ever saw me again."

Shizuru frowned, pursing her lips as she mulled over Botan's words.

"And you haven't seen him since?" she asked.

"Well yes, I have," Botan replied. "He saved me from a falling tree."

Shizuru slowly narrowed her eyes.

"Are you talking literally?" she asked. "It's kinda hard to tell with you sometimes…"

"I was flying in a thunderstorm and a tree fell towards me, but Hiei caught me in his arms."

Shizuru's eyebrows shot up.

"And then he held my hand all the way back to Raizen's tower," Botan continued. "But then I heard him talking about Koto."

Shizuru moved back over to the tray and began pouring herself a bowl of tea.

"Go on," she encouraged.

"I don't think he sees me as anything but a silly ferry girl," Botan replied.

Shizuru began sipping from her bowl.

"And then Mukuro told me that I should stay away from him."

Shizuru hurriedly lowered her bowl, choking down the last mouthful of tea, a small amount unceremoniously spurting from her lips.

"Isn't Mukuro one of the former rulers of demon world?" she asked as she wiped the spit from her mouth.

"Yes, she oversees the border patrol that Hiei is a part of," Botan confirmed.

"So why was she talking to you?"

Shizuru made the mistake of taking another drink.

"I climbed into the storage compartment of her bug and went into her castle to find Hiei."

Shizuru coughed down her tea with only slightly more finesse than the last time.

"She could have killed you," she pointed out between coughs. "Or worse: she might have decided to keep you in a cage as an attraction at a demon circus. You sure are odd enough to be a part of the freak show…"

Shizuru began drinking again.

"Yes, it was silly, now that I think of it," Botan agreed. "I was just so worried about Hiei, but when I finally saw him there I got a little distracted. I couldn't believe it: he tied up was in a wet chamber and he was completely naked!"

Shizuru doubled over, her mouth spraying tea outwards and her bowl dropping to smash on the ground.

"Oh my, are you alright?" Botan asked her.

She walked over, slapping Shizuru on the back a few times.

"You should sip your tea, Shizuru," she advised.

Shizuru glared up at her through ruffled strands of golden brown hair, baring her teeth.

"Botan, I swear, I am going to record you talking one of these days," she ground out. "If only so that I have evidence for the plead of mercy killing I intend to make before the jury."

"…What?"

Shizuru coughed a few more times before straightening up.

"Botan, please understand that I mean this in the nicest possible way," she said, planting one hand firmly onto Botan's shoulder. "When you go back to demon world, go and find the little guy and just get it all out of your system. I can't deal with it any more, and I'm sure I'm not the only one."

"What do you mean, Shizuru?" Botan asked, edging closer to her.

"I mean go and resolve the sexual tension between you and Mister Yukina," Shizuru said firmly. "Go and have sex with him."

Botan gasped.

"Yusuke and Keiko said exactly the same thing!" she said.

"Yes, probably because it's good advice," Shizuru replied.

"I see…"

* * *

Botan smiled awkwardly at Kuwabara, who was positively glaring at her. It was an accusing glare, as though she were a rival for Yukina's affections and he wanted to punch her in the face. Yukina had been no less clingy all through the night, including pushing her own bed next to Botan's so that she could cuddle her in her sleep – which had been quite unpleasant, since sleeping next to an ice maiden made for a cold and restless night – but Botan had tolerated it all with a smile, all the while wondering just how deeply that sacred twin bond really ran between Yukina and Hiei.

"Well I'll be off now," Botan said.

"Twelve," Kuwabara grumbled.

Botan gave him a withering look but he his glare did not falter. And Yukina did not lessen her bear-hug around Botan's waist.

"Well I'll be off now," Botan said again after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Thirteen," Kuwabara muttered.

"Come on honey, let Botan go now," Shizuru said, moving over to prise Yukina's arms from Botan. "She's delivering your letter, remember? And if you don't let her go, she can't deliver it, and if she can't deliver it, you can't get an answer back."

Yukina reluctantly staggered back, looking up at Botan as though she had just slapped her across the face.

"Please come back soon Botan," she pleaded.

"Yes, I promise I'll be back soon," Botan replied, hurriedly swiping her oar under her legs. "Take care everyone! Goodbye!"

Botan zipped off without a single backward glance, sighing in relief as she passed the temple gate. Yukina was adorable, but she really had been a little too attentive the night before, and the look on her face had been more than a little unsettling: it had mostly been the sort of contented look one gave to an old and dear friend, but occasionally there had been hints of something else there that had really unsettled Botan.

She shuffled awkwardly on her oar before pushing onwards, passing through the portal into demon world.

The passage into demon world no longer had the dizzying effect it once had on Botan, and she barely noticed the transition this time, quickly looking around to get her bearings before altering her course in the direction she knew the ice village to be in. As she began to see the familiar grey clouds in the distant red sky, Botan wondered if any of the elders would remember her from her approach 99 years before. Probably just a ridiculous thought, she told herself as she tugged at Yukina's ribbon, checking that it was still tied tightly around her ponytail. She hoped that it would be enough for her to enter the village without being attacked; but she took Yukina's advice regardless and created a barrier around herself and her oar before she got with a snowball's throw of the village.

Botan was shortly glad of her decision to erect a barrier, as a storm began buffeting the edges of her forcefield, every snowflake laden with trace amounts of demonic energy that sparked as her defences blocked it. With the barrier, Botan found it far easier to get close to the glacial village, the jagged buildings soon taking shape as they had done 99 years ago; but this time the image became a little clearer, and Botan soon found herself flying over icy pathways.

The village itself was as foggy as the clouds surrounding it, she realised. When she had gone there in the past, she had been closer to her goal than she had thought, perhaps only inches away from solid land before she was hurtled back through time.

Botan banished her oar and dropped to the ground, holding her barrier in place as an especially haggard old woman approached her, radiating demonic energy that threatened to blast her away, barrier and all.

"What brings you here?" the woman asked her. "Do you seek to join us?"

"To join you?" Botan echoed.

"Many women seek to join us in this way of life," the woman replied. "None have ever met our requirements."

Botan frowned curiously, surprised to not only be greeted in such a manner but to hear that other females had tried to join the ice maidens in their secluded, male-free life. Botan's face drooped a little: maybe a male-free life was not such a bad thing, she thought to herself.

"Actually no," she eventually recovered. "I have come to deliver a message to Rui, on behalf of Yukina?"

The woman's sunken face twitched slightly and her eyes began to glow white. Recognising the glow from the one Hina had used to turn a troll into a block of ice, Botan dropped to her knees and lowered her head.

"No, look, I am a friend of Yukina!" she hurriedly pointed out, poking a finger at the ties in her hair. "She gave me this so that you would recognise me as a friend!"

Botan winced as the woman tugged at her ties, before crying out as they were suddenly ripped from her hair. She stood up again, clutching a hand to the back of her head, a tear freezing by the corner of her eye.

"Well that was very rude and unnecessarily harsh!" she snapped.

The woman turned her back and began slowly walking away from Botan, who glared after her indignantly.

"Excuse me!" she called after her. "Aren't you at least going to take me to Rui?"

Botan watched the woman fade into the fog before growling, stamping a foot angrily and then starting after her. As she stomped along the winding icy path through the village, Botan saw women hurry indoors, shutting windows and doors, ushering their daughters inside with them. She occasionally caught a pair of terrified eyes glaring at her as though she was some sort of monster, and she could not help but think that Hiei had been right about the ice maidens: they had already sentenced themselves to a miserable, unfeeling existence that was worse than death.

Botan rounded a corner and stopped short as she suddenly found herself ten paces from a tall, willowy woman with very long hair and very sad eyes. She was not very different from the other ice maidens, but unlike the others, she did not run away or look panicked by Botan's presence. Botan took three steps forward and stopped again: the woman was clutching Yukina's ribbon to her chest.

"Are you Rui?" Botan asked her.

The woman nodded her head and Botan smiled.

"Bingo!" she said cheerfully. "I have a letter for you from Yukina."

Botan removed the letter from the folds of her winter coat, holding it out towards Rui, who took it with a slight movement of her hand.

"Outsiders aren't welcome here," she said quietly. "You had best come with me."

Botan nodded and hurriedly followed after Rui as she turned and walked away. She led Botan to a house that was every bit as grey and angular as all the others, taking her inside and closing the door. The temperature inside the house was almost as cold as it had been outside, the only small mercy being that there was no chilly wind or snow in the air indoors. Botan followed Rui into a plain room with pale blue walls, only missing a step when she saw that one of the walls was almost entirely covered by pencil sketches of animals.

"Those are creatures from the living world!" Botan blurted out, pointing at a picture of a fox and a family of songbirds.

"Yes, Yukina drew these for me," Rui explained. "I like to draw things that I see, but I don't see very much up here. I taught Yukina to draw when she was a young girl, and when she went to the living world to look for her brother, these are the things she saw and drew for me. She is a good girl, it's like having a piece of another world in my home."

Botan nodded slowly, sensing a pang of sadness and regret in Rui's voice.

"Yukina must be with child by now," Rui continued. "Is that why she sent you?"

"Yes," Botan replied. "She is a little worried about the birth, and she just wanted to send you her love and she hoped that you might write back to her."

"I will write back. Will you take my letter back to her?"

"Of course!"

"I will need time to write it, there is much I must tell her, and I'll need time to read her letter too, of course. Can you wait for a few days?"

"Absolutely."

"You can stay here with me."

Botan's face dropped.

"…In the ice village?" she asked. "But I'm not… I'm not an ice maiden."

"You will be safe here with me," Rui replied.

"But I can't stay, I have something I must do tomorrow. I can come back?"

"Alright. Can you give me eight days?"

"Certainly!"

"Thank you… I'm sorry, you know my name, but I don't know yours?"

"It's Botan!"

"What a pretty name."

Botan frowned slightly.

"Well thank you," she said. "I'm glad you think so. Some people think it's weak."

Rui shook her head.

"When I return, will I be… Will I need to ward off any attacks?" Botan asked carefully.

"No, I've spoken with the elder, and she understands that you are a friend," Rui assured her.

Botan nodded.

"Can I ask one more question please before I go?"

"Certainly."

"Did you know Yukina's brother at all?"

"I was with Hina when she gave birth to both of her children. He was a vicious and violent child, the elders had to bind him in sacred bandages and talisman cards to stop him from burning our entire village to the ground. He was born of fire, as all forbidden children are, destined to destroy everything he touched."

"…I see."

"I thought it was a cruel fate to throw him to his death, but I complied."

"You… You complied?"

"I cast him from the village."

"You were the one who… Threw…?"

"I always knew that he would survive the fall. He was so powerful, even then. And I know that he understood every word I said to him, he had a fierce intelligence in his eyes, even though he was just a newborn."

Botan nodded slowly.

"Did Yukina manage to find him?"

Botan met Rui's eyes, feeling as though they were somehow boring into her.

"Not exactly," she replied.

It was, after all, the most honest answer she could give.

"That's too bad," Rui said, her face still so solemn it was hard to tell if she felt any worse about the situation or not.

Botan nodded again, before scanning over the countless drawings on the walls. They were not terribly accurate or of great artistic quality, but they were reasonable enough to teach a person like Rui what creatures outside of her sheltered existence looked like.

"I'll come back in eight days then," she said, turning to Rui again.

"Thank you, Botan," she said. "I'll walk you out."

Botan nodded, following Rui back out of the house and to the edge of the village. As they reached the drop, Botan peered over it, imagining baby Hiei wrapped up and plastered with talisman cards plummeting down: the thought brought a lump to her throat.

But he did not want her pity, she told herself, and so she pushed the thought from her mind.

Rui handed her back Yukina's ribbon, though she seemed a little reluctant to do so. Botan bid her goodbye and hopped onto her oar, but Rui only nodded in reply. She looked as though she might cry, but Botan could not be sure if she was upset or if it was just that her expression was generally quite miserable.

As Botan flew out of the clouds again and back out into the clearer skies of demon world, she found herself thinking that Hiei could never have lived in that village even if he had not been born a fire demon: the quiet, directionless way of life would have killed him. She wondered how he would feel if he knew that she had been to the village, and that she had spoken to the woman who had thrown him from the cliff.

She doubted he would care.

* * *

The hotel Botan returned to was arguably one of the nicer ones around the tournament arena, but she still did not feel safe moving about its halls on her own. Koenma had seemed to think that she was safe to come and go, but she was unsure whether to believe him, since he seemed to have conflicting opinions about her safety in demon world in general: one day he was sending her there and telling her it was fine, the next he was losing his temper with her for going out alone.

She was relieved when she finally located four familiar faces, sat around a table playing cards.

"Botan!" Koenma greeted her. "Come and join us!"

Botan dragged a chair from another table over and sat at the end of the table, between Koenma and Yusuke.

"Who's winning?" she asked.

"Me!" George said, pointing to his pile of winnings.

"Me," Koenma corrected him, dragging the winnings over to his own place.

"Stop stealing George's winnings, it's not fair!" Yusuke snapped at him.

"He works for me, his winnings are my winnings," Koenma plainly replied.

Yusuke sighed, throwing down his cards.

"I'm getting tired anyway," he groaned. "Big day tomorrow, round one. I think I'll go to bed early."

"Are you feeling alright?" the others all asked him in unison.

"Shut-up, you cheeky bastards!" Yusuke sneered.

He walked off, muttering to himself as he went, leaving George, Koenma, Botan and Kurama behind.

"You don't have anything left to gamble with ogre, you should go to bed too," Koenma said to George.

"But Sir–"

"Now, ogre!"

George pouted as well as his fangs would allow before trudging away from the table. Koenma watched him go before turning to Kurama.

"You've got a fight tomorrow too, haven't you Kurama?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"Yes I do," Kurama smoothly replied. "But I'm an old man, I don't need as much sleep as a young boy like yourself does."

Koenma and Botan both frowned slightly at his response.

"I'm not tired," Koenma said with a shrug. "I'll keep playing until I win the rest of your money."

Kurama smiled, placing his cards face down onto the table.

"In that case I fold," he said, pushing his own pile of winnings towards Koenma.

"Just like that?" Koenma echoed. "Well, that's no fun!"

Koenma gathered all the winnings together regardless, grinning at Botan as he did so.

"Perhaps an early night would do you good," Kurama suggested. "A man of your position wouldn't want to be caught out late at night in demon world."

Koenma frowned at Kurama again, but the fox demon's smile did not falter.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me," he said in a low voice.

"And I you," Kurama replied.

Koenma eyed him over slowly before sweeping his winnings into his pockets and rising to his feet.

"Goodnight," Kurama said to him.

Koenma gave him a slightly sceptical look before turning to Botan.

"You shouldn't stay out late either, Botan," he told her.

"I am tired," she admitted. "I'll go to my room soon, I promise."

Koenma nodded at her, gave Kurama one last glare and then slowly walked off. Botan watched him leave, frowning more each time he glanced back at her. Once he was out of sight she shook off her concern and turned to Kurama, finding him already looking at her, his smile still in place.

"Botan, I have a favour to ask of you," he said.

"Oh, alrighty!" she said cheerfully.

But her cheer faded as she saw his smile lessen and his eyes darken slightly.

"Oh…" she said. "This is the favour I owe you, yes?"

"Yes, that's correct," he confirmed. "And it starts with this."

He reached a hand into his hair and produced a key, holding it up in the air between them.

"I don't understand," she said.

"This is a key to my apartment in the living world," he replied. "I would like you take it."

Botan started to reach for the key before stopping herself, her mind starting to process what he was asking of her.

"…Why?" she asked.

He smiled though his eyes lacked any humour.

"Like the favour I did for you Botan, discretion will be the most important element of what I have to ask," he said.

Botan closed her hand around empty space and lowered it to the table, her eyes focussing on the seemingly innocent key in Kurama's fingers.

"This is going to be a pretty big favour, isn't it?" she asked in a low voice.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan begins the massive undertaking that is repaying her debt to Kurama (it will take most of the chapter just to explain what it is), she gets some advice from a fellow ferry girl and shares an awkward moment with Koenma. **Chapter 23: The Duel**

 **A/N:** Sorry if the ice village scene in this chapter seemed rushed, but I didn't want it to drag on – Botan's first visit there is not so important her reason for going there is.


	23. The Duel

**Recap:** Botan found out that Yukina and Hiei share an unusual bond, she delivered Yukina's letter to Rui in the ice village and Kurama called on the favour she owes him.

* * *

 **Chapter 23: The Duel**

The skies of spirit world were still dull and the air was still chilly as Botan soared through it, heading towards the rising sun. She yawned openly, not bothering to cover her mouth as there was no-one to see her anyway. She had not slept much the night before, partly because she knew that she had to rise so early that morning and partly because she was very apprehensive about what the day ahead might hold for her. Ordinarily she would love flying long distances to unique locations, but this flight found her brow furrowed and her knuckles white as she gripped her oar far too tightly.

Botan had only been to the summit of spirit world's highest mountain once before: and that had been so long ago she could barely remember where the mountain was, much less what it looked like or why it was so significant. On her journey towards it that morning, Botan did not see a single flicker of activity, which confirmed her suspicion that it was a part of spirit world that was rarely visited by anyone: which was good, she told herself, since she did not wish to be caught going there by anyone. But it was also terrifying, because spirit world was supposed to be a hive of activity, and to travel to such a remote location under the purple sky made her feel like she was doing something terrible.

Actually though, she thought darkly, what she was about to do was terrible: but unfortunately she was indebted to Kurama, and this was what he had asked of her in return for not telling anyone about her misuse of The Stolen Moment.

How ironic that she was about to steal something from spirit world and use it incorrectly to cover up for her having already stolen something from spirit world and used it incorrectly, she mused.

As the mountain began to dominate the sky ahead of her, Botan began to think that maybe letting Koenma know the truth about her excursion to the past was the better option after all. He had been quite kind and sympathetic lately, and he had told her that she was his favourite ferry girl, so maybe he would overlook her little mishap. After all, surely rewriting history and destroying one of spirit world's most legendary artefacts was not really so bad?

Or maybe it was.

Botan sighed, angling her oar upwards as she drew nearer to the mountain and found that the summit was in fact somewhere amongst next layer of clouds above her. The mountain itself looked brown and barren, but she could hear running water, which meant that what she was looking for was probably at the top. It was not a difficult thing that she was about to do, but it was, potentially, a terrible thing. She would never have considered doing such a thing or even letting anyone else do such a thing had it been anyone but Kurama who had asked her. She trusted that he did only intend to use what she brought back for himself and did not intend to sell or exploit it in anyway.

Heaven forbid if he ever changed his mind and reverted back to his criminal ways, she thought.

Finally the summit of the mountain began to take shape above Botan's head. It was not snow-covered, like most high mountains were and as she had expected this one to be. The land at the summit was shaped in a crater, almost as though the mountain was a dormant volcano, and the hollow was filled with water that spilled down in small waterfalls from cracks in the rock. And in the centre of the water grew the tree Botan was looking for.

She flew up to the gnarled trunk of the old and thick but surprisingly short tree, untying the flask she had hanging from her oar. She reached down and filled the flask with water from the lake before tying it back onto her oar and then removing a plastic bag from her inside coat pocket. She felt like one of the special detectives she had often witnessed attending the scenes of a murder. Just like them, she had come to collect something incriminating. Easing her oar up a little higher, Botan brought herself level with the foliage of the tree, which looked rather plain and average. Amidst the leaves were occasional clumps of flowers or else fruits in various stages of ripening. Botan wondered what happened to the fruits that never got picked: she supposed they just fell to the bottom of the lake and rotted. Obviously none took seed, because the tree before her was the only one of its kind.

Botan paused, her eyelids lowering slightly. This tree had been the only one of its kind, she thought to herself, but, according to Kurama, that was no longer the case. Apparently another tree of the same species had taken root somewhere in the living world – something she was sure would not be received well by Koenma if he ever found out.

Botan removed a pair of pruning scissors from one pocket and carefully cut a bunch of flowers from the tree, easing them into the plastic bag and sealing it closed. She then moved around the tree twice before choosing the reddest fruit and picking it, stuffing it down her coat front and zipping the coat up to her chin. She did not like any part of what she was doing, and she hoped that Kurama would not abuse these items or underestimate their significance. As soon as Botan was satisfied that the fruit was concealed from view beneath her coat, as were the bag of flowers and pruning scissors, and that the flask was secured to her oar, she shot down the opposite side of the mountain to the side she had approached from, planning to circumnavigate her way over the northern territory before coming back to the portal to the living world, in the hope that if anyone saw her, they would think that she had approached the portal from King Enma's temple, and as such her actions would not seem suspicious.

Botan completed half of her doubly long journey before her illusion of escaping unseen was shattered.

"Hey, you're a long way off the beaten path!"

Botan screamed and plummeted a few feet before righting herself on her oar, grabbing at her coat to check that she had not dropped any of the various items she had concealed about her person.

"You weren't sleep-flying, were you?"

Botan turned as a green-haired ferry girl smoothly glided down to fly at her level, smiling at her amiably.

"I thought the concept of sleep-flying was a myth, though with you maybe not," she said.

"Izumi!" Botan blurted out. "You startled me!"

"I thought I was the only one who liked an early morning fly around this world," Izumi replied. "I've never seen you out this way before though. Are you alright?"

"Yes," Botan lied. "Fine. Just dandy, in fact."

"I thought you were in demon world with Lord Koenma, watching the demon world tournament?"

"I am."

Izumi frowned at Botan until she realised her mistake.

"Oh I mean I was!" she corrected herself. "And I will be again. I'm going back there… Soon."

Izumi nodded.

"Botan, I don't want to alarm you, but there is a tiny rumour going around spirit world that you are only in demon world because you've fallen in love with a demon there," she said slowly. "And I do feel partly to blame, after shouting it out that day. But you did say that you had feelings for a demon, and that wasn't so very long ago…"

"Well that's just silly," Botan said, laughing falsely. "I'm in demon world to support my friends, of course!"

"Of course."

Botan and Izumi flew on together, side-by-side, for several more minutes in silence until Izumi spoke again.

"You're the only ferry girl who has ever been allowed to take a human body," she said quietly. "I suppose Lord Koenma granted you that privilege because he knew that you would not abuse it."

Botan stole a glance at Izumi, but found her looking ahead, her eyes unreadable.

"I probably would have abused it," she continued. "We all have minds of our own, and we all hear plenty of stories about life from the souls we collect, it's only natural to grow curious. I don't think I could have overcome my curiosity. I don't think I could have resisted temptation. I would want to know how everything feels, how it tastes and how it smells. To be alive and to interact physically with other living people. To know how it feels to kiss."

Botan sighed involuntarily and found herself smiling. Why, she thought? Her first kiss had been anything but blissful.

"To know the joy and satisfaction of making love."

Botan dropped down again, this time spinning over two complete rotations. She grabbed at the pruning scissors as they left her pocket, hurriedly pushing them back in with one hand whilst patting the other hand against the rest of her coat, mentally checking off all the other items she had. Once she was sure that she not lost anything she turned her head to Izumi, who had again adjusted her flight-path to join her.

"What I'm trying to say Botan is that if I was you, if I had a human body, I would use it to its fullest potential," she said quietly. "From what I hear, love making is the most wonderful physical pleasure known to humans and demons."

Izumi gave a small wiggle of her eyebrows as she said the word "demons" and Botan finally began to understand the point she was trying to make.

"I see," she said with a nod. "You as well. It seems like everyone is telling me I should… Perform that act with him."

"So what are you waiting for?" Izumi asked.

Botan gave a short laugh but then found herself at a loss for words. She saw Izumi smile at her in almost sympathetic manner.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't," she said, before dropping away and spiralling down through the clouds.

"…My best kept secret and my biggest mistake…" Botan muttered to herself; though she was unsure what she was referring to, her love for Hiei or the items she was about to take to the living world.

* * *

"Oh, merciful God!" Botan cried out, clutching a hand to her chest.

She was already nervous and anticipating a disaster at any second and so the fearsome image hung on the wall beside her was the last thing she had needed to come across right then. Thankfully she had already closed the front door before she cried out and so she could only hope that the walls of Kurama's apartment were thick enough to have contained her panic and not alerted the neighbours.

Though she was left wondering why he felt the need to hang a large, 3-D, hologrammatic framed picture of an Arctic fox right next to his front door.

Sighing deeply to calm herself, Botan moved further into the apartment, finding it almost exactly as she had imagined it would be: meticulously neat, minimalistic and heavy with the scents of roses and greenery. The living room was quite small, the floor-space dominated by a futon that was slightly worn, and the kitchen was just a small attachment onto the end of the living room. There was a small bathroom at the end of the hall and a closed door that Botan knew led into what should have been a bedroom.

But in this case, Kurama had chosen to sleep on the futon in the living room, sacrificing sleeping space for laboratory.

Botan crept up to the door, drawing in a deep breath before opening it and jumping backwards. She tensed, half-expecting something to lunge out of the room beyond and attack her: but of course nothing did. The room was silent, and an eerie light was spilling out of it across the hall floor by her feet. The colour of the light was unlike any other in the living world, though Botan already knew why. She swallowed before creeping towards the door again and slowly pushing it open further to afford herself a full view of what lay within the room beyond it.

Botan almost smiled as she wondered what Keiko or Shizuru or even Yukina would have said if she had asked them what they expected Kurama's bedroom to look like, as she was sure that they would have guessed something simplistic and tasteful, in keeping with his personality. What it actually looked like however was far from either of those things. The entire room was devoid of furniture and the window had been boarded up from the inside – Botan was unsure if that had been done to stop daylight from the living world getting in or to stop anyone seeing what lay inside the room – and in each corner of the room stood a medium plastic plant pot, each housing a luminous flower that grew from a tall, stiff stem. The flowers were not especially startling in appearance, but their petals were glowing relentlessly, producing a light that was, as far as Botan could tell, identical to the light seen in the skies of spirit world.

And each of the flowers was facing towards the key feature that stood in the centre of the room: an enormous stone plant pot filled mostly with water and home to a chunky tree with average foliage but very unique bursts of flowers.

Botan removed the sealed plastic bag from her coat pocket, holding it up between herself and the tree, if only to confirm what she ought to already know: Kurama had successfully managed to grow another Tree of Previous Life.

She tried not to picture Koenma's reaction if he were ever to find out about the plant, far less how he would respond if he learned that she, Botan the ferry girl, had assisted Kurama in his experimentations with it. There was only meant to be one Tree of Previous Life, and it was kept at the top of the highest mountain in spirit world for a good reason. It was remote and inaccessible because it was meant to be kept away from idle hands.

But Kurama was only using it to grow more fruits that would allow him to revert back to his full demon form, Botan told herself, and that was not a malicious thing. What was the worst that could possibly happen if he did keep the tree?

Botan placed the plastic bag of flowers down on the floor, unsure what else to do with it. Kurama had told her to gather some flowers from the tree in spirit world because he wanted to do something called "cross-pollination", and although she had not really understood what he meant, she had, by then, been too scared to ask. She unzipped her coat and took out the ripe fruit she had taken from spirit world, walking further into the room to place it into the largest solid plant pot she could find (Kurama had specifically told her to pick the biggest pot but to be sure that it was not one with holes in the bottom for drainage). She then filled the pot as far as she could with the water she had taken in her flask before cupping her hands over the water's surface.

She paused, chewing at her lip anxiously. It was one thing to steal from spirit world on behalf of a demon, but this next part of the favour was something a little more involved. Kurama had told her that he had managed to grow the tree in his room by using the seeds from the Fruit of Previous Life that Suzuka had given him, and he had sustained it by creating artificial conditions similar to those in spirit world: he had somehow cross-bred different light emitting flowers to create a mix that produced the same type of light found in spirit world and he had started its growth by infusing the water with his own spirit energy. However, he said, this was where his experiment had fallen short of perfection. He said that the tree he was growing was not quite as it ought to be, and that the fruit it produced had very some very unusual side effects on him. He blamed the imperfections on the fact that his tree had not been grown in the same water and that his demonic energy had tainted the tree's abilities.

And that was where he needed Botan's help.

With the correct type of water and Botan's spirit energy used as a catalyst, Kurama believed that he could grow another tree that would be more effective. But, being the strategist that he always was, he had insisted that the second tree be grown from a fruit from the original tree and he had even planned ahead for the possibility of it failing again: if the second tree did not produce the correct fruit, he was then going to carry out the cross-pollination using the flowers from the original tree on both of the new trees he had grown.

It almost made Botan's brain explode just thinking about it, but, she reasoned, that was just Kurama through and through: always planning ahead and always so intelligent and prepared.

"Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained," she muttered to herself, her hands starting glow as she began infusing her spirit energy into the water. "I just hope it doesn't grow into something carnivorous and eat my face off. I need that for looking at people."

Botan closed her eyes and continued releasing energy into the water, opening her hands apart as she felt spindly shoots pushing against her palms. She did not know how much energy she needed to donate, so she decided to keep going. She would only need to leave herself enough spirit energy to fly back to demon world once she was done, and after that she would be watching the first round of the tournament all day and so would not need to be at full strength.

Once she reached a point where she felt that flying might be difficult Botan stopped, lowered her hands to her sides and opening her eyes again. A tree had sprouted from the pot, but it was only half the height of the other, and it did not even look like the Tree of Previous Life at all. Kurama's tree was thick and rugged with coarse bark like the original, with identical plain leaves and fluted white flowers; Botan's tree was thin and willowy with smooth bark and curly, fleshy foliage. Her tree had no flowers, but she assumed it would take time to mature to that level, as Kurama had said as much himself.

"I don't expect to need the assistance of the fruit for my first or even my second round challenges," he had said. "But I will need it by the third round, where I expect to face one of two very impressive opponents, who I know I cannot defeat in my current form."

If Kurama did use the fruit, and it did help him win the third round, the fourth round and eventually all the way to the finals, making him the new ruler of demon world, would that mean that Botan was partly responsible for his success and anything he consequently did as ruler of demon world?

Botan felt her face turn blue with fear as she again imagined Lord Koenma's reaction to learning about what she had just done. She was starting to think of herself as a criminal of spirit world: she had taken and misused The Stolen Moment and now she was growing a forbidden mutation of a forbidden plant and aiding someone else in continuing the experiment. She did not like to think of herself as a criminal, she had always prided herself on upholding a true and virtuous existence. If her crimes were ever realised, she wondered who would have the worst criminal record: her, Kurama or Hiei.

Botan got to her feet, narrowing her eyes slightly. She was only in this place and this illegal mess because of Hiei. It was because of him that she used The Stolen Moment, and it was because of her misuse of the device that she had become indebted to Kurama. Although, she thought, maybe Kurama was partly to blame for her predicament too: he could have just asked her to bake him a cake rather than involve her in his criminal activities.

She then realised that she had finished what Kurama had asked of her, yet was still standing in the room she had so dreaded entering to begin with. She deposited the pruning scissors and flask on the floor and hurriedly left, closing the door firmly behind herself. She started to let out a sigh of relief as she pressed her back against the closed door, but her sigh quickly turned into a shriek of horror, and she actually began fumbling behind herself for the door handle, since what was waiting for her in the hallway was far more fearsome than what she had left behind in the bedroom.

"Oh dear…" she muttered under her breath, pressing herself harder against the door.

Standing in front of her was some sort of monster. It was very small, but it was a monster nonetheless, and it was looking right at her. Or at least, it seemed to be looking right at her, it was hard to tell since it had no visible eyes. It took a few rolling steps closer to her and she stiffened as it stretched its enormous head out towards her knees. She was torn between staying still and hoping for the best and summoning her oar in one hand and her baseball bat in the other so that she could hit the little thing away.

Before she could make up her mind, a triangular spiked tongue poked out of the monster's head and jabbed at her shin before retracting back out of sight. It had not hurt, and the monster made no move to follow up with a bite, but Botan did clearly notice that the air around her had changed, a sweet, sticky smell emanating upwards from the monster. She frowned down at it curiously, surprised to see that it turned away from her and begun walking off. It was an odd-looking creature indeed: it had an enormous head decorated only with a smiling mouth lined with countless thin, needle-like teeth, and its body was nothing more than a stalk with a few leaves, branching out into two roots that it used like legs.

Botan's face dropped. It was not a monster, it was a plant. And by the smell of it and the shape of its jaws, it was some sort of piranha plant, like an enlarged, mutant version of a Venus Fly Trap.

Though knowing that it was a carnivorous plant did little to ease Botan's concerns, and she quickly ran out of the apartment, locking the door behind her and gladly running all the way down to the exit, where she staggered out into the street beyond, turning to look back up at the darkened window of Kurama's apartment where he had attached the boards to conceal his little secret.

Botan summoned her oar and quickly took off. As she flew, she considered that the favour Kurama had asked of her was quite an interesting one, since it had involved him imparting the details of his secret experiment to her, and she could easily have reported him to Lord Koenma. Of course if she had, he could have reported her for using The Stolen Moment: but Koenma was more likely to be lenient on her as a ferry girl. Kurama had potentially given her some valuable blackmail material, she thought with a small smirk.

Botan flew on a little longer before she gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. Blackmail? What sort of thought was that? That was a terrible thing to even consider, especially against a friend!

Botan wondered if Hiei would be proud of her for having such a thought.

* * *

Botan grinned cheerfully as she slid into her seat next to Koenma. He did not seem alarmed that she had been gone for a long time, and merely greeted her with a small smile. At his other side, George was wearing his red bodysuit and carrying a small flag in support of Yusuke: though it looked as though he had made the item himself, as it was of rather poor craftsmanship.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Botan said. "Have I missed anything spectacular?"

"You missed Yusuke's fight," Koenma answered her. "Again. Hiei is on next in the B division and Kurama is on after him."

"Oh dear, I missed Yusuke again?" Botan asked. "He won, I assume?"

"Yes, it was quite a quick fight," Koenma replied. "As we thought, a lot of weaker demons have made it through to this round after random results from the lottery draw for the battle royals that took place."

Botan nodded, turning her attention to the large screen ahead of them. From the corner of her eye she saw Koenma turn to her, his mouth twisting into a lop-sided smile.

"Oh Botan, why do you always come back from the living world with flowers in your hair?" he asked.

Botan stiffened as she felt his long, thin fingers extracting something from the middle of her ponytail by the back of her neck. She shifted her eyes to his hand as he brought it around, biting back the urge to scream as she saw crushed white petals on his fingers, clearly from flowers of the Tree of Previous Life.

"What sort of flowers are these?" he asked. "They look familiar. And they smell…"

He lifted his fingers to his nose and sniffed, his delicate eyebrows drawing into a frown, his eyes glazing over with the look of someone trying to remember something they knew they ought to be able to. Meanwhile Botan began to become flustered, panic overtaking common sense as she feared he would recognise the source of the flowers and start demanding to know why she had been near the Tree of Previous Life when she had told him that she had simply been in the living world for an early morning fly.

"Hold my hand, Sir," she blurted out suddenly, grabbing his hand in both of hers and being sure to crush the petals further as she did so.

Koenma slowly lifted his head, his eyes meeting hers with one of the most confused and suspicious looks she had ever seen them bear.

"I get scared," she continued. "When I watch Hiei fight. So would you hold my hand during his fight?"

Koenma's eyes looked down at her hands clutching onto his, his bottom lip quivering slightly before he answered her.

"Botan, why does watching Hiei fight scare you?" he asked, his eyes finding their way back to hers.

"Because he's so intense, Lord Koenma," she replied, gently rubbing her fingers against his, gradually flicking off pieces of crushed petal as she did so. "And he's quite scary. Sometimes when he's fighting he talks to me telepathically, and it scares me."

"He talks to you telepathically?" Koenma echoed.

"Sometimes," Botan confirmed.

"While he's fighting? Talking to you telepathically requires a lot of concentration, why would he waste energy doing that during a fight?"

"Well usually it's because he wants to warn me not to tell Yukina that he is her brother."

"…And he does this during fights?"

"Yes, he did it twice during the dark tournament, in fact."

"The dark tournament?"

Botan tensed as Koenma's hand suddenly curled into a fist, his fingers closing around hers. He looked angry, but to her relief, his action had caused the remains of the flower petals to dissipate from their joined fingers.

"Um… Yes?" she said when she realised that he expected an answer.

"The dark tournament the team were forced to fight in by Toguro?" he asked.

"…Yes…"

"The tournament they entered as underdogs and had to fight long and hard to win?"

"…Yes…"

"What in the name of my father was Hiei doing wasting energy talking to you about something as insignificant as that during such dangerous and important fights? Most of the time Hiei doesn't even talk out loud to anyone, why would he need to seek you out and talk to you telepathically at such a crucial time when his concentration ought to be focussed elsewhere?"

"Well I don't know that he was actually fighting at the time–"

"Did he, or did he not, talk to you telepathically during a match of the dark tournament?"

"Well, yes, but he might not have actually been fighting at that specific moment–"

"If he wasn't fighting, he should have been concentrating on watching his opponents."

"I don't know for sure, I wasn't there."

Koenma's eyes thinned, and Botan immediately realised that she had said something wrong: though she was unsure what, exactly. Koenma's anger seemed sudden and misplaced to her, and he seemed to be getting angrier with each passing second. She was frightened to say anything else, lest she further incriminate herself.

"You weren't there?" he asked quietly. "What do you mean, you weren't there? You were with the team during the entire tournament!"

"Yes…" Botan slowly replied, searching his eyes for any warning that she ought to stop. "But… Shizuru and Keiko went to the little girls' room during one of the fights, and while they were there they found Yukina, and they called me out to help identify her, and while I was out there with them, Hiei spoke to me telepathically and warned me not to tell Yukina or even Keiko about the relation… And then the girls and I slept in one morning and accidentally went to the wrong arena, so we missed most of that fight, and while we were walking around the island Hiei spoke to me telepathically to warn me about telling Yukina that he was her brother… Sir…"

"How did he even know that you were with Yukina if he couldn't see you?"

"Well I suppose he saw it with his jagan eye, Sir. I almost said out loud that Hiei and Yukina were brother and sister, but before I did Hiei warned me not to talk. Telepathically, he warned me not to…"

Botan tried to slip her fingers from Koenma's fist but he was holding on too tightly. His grasp was not painful, but it was alarmingly firm for a man of such delicate build who openly admitted that he was not a man of great physical strength.

"He must have been watching you the whole time," he said quietly, almost as though he was speaking aloud rather than addressing Botan. "The whole time he was supposed to be fighting or else watching the others, he must have been trying to find you so that he could invade your thoughts even though he had no line of sight to you. Why would he do that?"

"Well I suppose he uh…" Botan began. "Well, um… Hiei knows what a blabbermouth I am, he was probably watching me because he knew Yukina was there and he didn't trust me to say… He has a special connection to Yukina you see, they are twins, and she knew that he was there, so he must have known that she was there, and he must have noticed that I had left the arena, and then he must have… He just doesn't trust me Sir, he thinks I'm an idiot."

Botan stopped then, partly because the significance of Koenma's question was actually starting to sink in and partly because she could not help but notice that Koenma's head had turned from her to the screen ahead of them. She turned her head and saw that the screen was currently showing a broadcast of round one of B division, fighter 43 versus fighter 44: fighter 44 of course being Hiei. The fight had not yet started, but it appeared that Hiei's opponent was talking to him about something that Hiei either found amusing or ridiculous by the smirk he wore.

Botan had never thought it odd before Koenma had mentioned it that Hiei had contacted her telepathically, twice catching her just as she had been about to reveal his identity to Yukina. It had never occurred to her that, in order for him to have caught her out like that, he must have been watching her thoughts long before she almost tripped herself up.

On the screen Hiei's opponent, a short and wiry man who bore an uncanny resemblance to a shark, had produced an ornate katana, pointing it at Hiei. Hiei returned his opponent's grin, tossing aside his coat and scarf and unsheathing his own weapon.

"And it looks like this will be a duel between swordsmen, people!" Koto's voice blasted out from the speakers.

Why would Hiei watch her thoughts from afar, Botan wondered? He had only spoken to her directly a handful of times before the dark tournament, and most of those discussions had been during his time in spirit world prison, and only then because she was the only person who would bring him his food rations: when she had asked Ayame why that was, Ayame had said that the man in the cell across from Hiei had scared off all the other ferry girls by calling them "my little treasure" and Hiei had scared off all the ogres by glaring at them. But even then, their conversations had followed a fairly typical pattern of nothingness:

"Good morning Hiei! Breakfast time again!"

"Hn."

"Oh now, don't pout, it's yummy tamagoyaki and hot Milo!"

…Glare…

"There you go! Eat it up before it gets cold!"

…Glare…

"Do you want an extra sugar cube in your Milo?"

…Glare…

"I know you like it sweet!"

"…Do what you want, it's not like I have a choice in the matter."

"Alrighty, one extra sugar cube just for you!"

Not exactly stimulating conversation, Botan thought to herself, and especially not memorable. Well, it was memorable to her, obviously, but she assumed that Hiei had quickly forgotten all about his time in spirit world prison, just like how he seemed to be able to quickly forget other moments they had shared that had meant so much more to her.

On the screen Hiei was the first to move, charging his opponent and lunging with his sword repeatedly. His opponent was very nimble, though probably nowhere near as fast as Hiei, and he dodged every attempt, eventually catching Hiei's sword against his own. In a flurry of flashes of light on metal, they parried every attempt the other made, the display looking unusually noble and traditional for being part of a battle between demons in demon world. Watching them clash blades reminded Botan of a time many centuries before when she would fly into the living world to battle scenes to collect the souls of the fallen warriors, sometimes spending longer than she ought to have watching swordfights, drawn in by the beauty of the battles that almost looked like a kind of dance – a bloody and violent dance, but one of elegance and artistry nonetheless.

And unlike any other battle, it required great concentration. Hiei had never struck Botan as the type to get distracted during a battle. Ever. For any reason imaginable. But he must had been at least a little distracted to have used his jagan to actively seek her out and monitor her thoughts and words the way he had during the dark tournament. The first time he had appeared in her mind she had only been thinking about Yukina's relation to Hiei, mainly because Yukina had just told her that she had come to the tournament to look for her long lost brother – so maybe that time Hiei had been watching Yukina, and noticed Botan was there looking flustered, and so he had decided to enter her mind and warn her off of her train of thought. The second time he had appeared in her mind she had been defending his name because Kuwabara had been miscalling him to Yukina. Really, she thought to herself, if Hiei had wanted to attack anyone's conscious at that moment, he should have gone for Kuwabara. But he never had. And he never did.

That was also strange, Botan thought. Hiei barely tolerated Kuwabara and was so protective of his sister, but he never stopped Kuwabara from fawning over Yukina. The only time he had shown any concern about the relationship was the day he had discovered that Yukina was pregnant and he had gotten himself entangled in the Vine of the Guilty in his rage.

On the screen Hiei was still duelling with his opponent, their movements a little more energetic as they were moving about more, ducking and dodging and lunging and thrusting. It was literally breathtaking to watch. Botan was surprised that Hiei would fight in such a manner. She knew that he preferred using his sword in a fight, but usually he stabbed it at his opponent's neck until he connected with a blow or else wielded it like an axe and chopped at his enemies. But his movements were looser in this battle, more fluid and graceful, and there was a slight sense that he knew that he could end the fight at any time, but he was actually drawing it out for the sheer pleasure of the moment.

But one thing was for certain: Hiei was very focussed on what he was doing, and did not look able or likely to break that concentration to start looking around for someone with his third eye. So why had he done just that during the dark tournament? Twice? He could not possibly have been fighting when he contacted her back then, but even so, as Koenma himself had said, Hiei ought to have been focussed on studying the opposing team's strategies rather than checking on Botan to see if she was talking about him or not.

"Hey!" Yusuke said, making his way along the row of seats to join Botan and the others, scattering fearful spectators as he approached. "Not interrupting anything, am I?"

Botan watched his thick black eyebrows bounce up and down suggestively, but she was at a complete loss as to what he was trying to imply. She heard Koenma laugh nervously and she turned to him, seeing him a little flustered and slightly pink, his eyes looking down. She looked down herself and saw that she was still clutching his hand in both of hers, and his fingers were still folded over hers.

"Don't be stupid, Yusuke!" Koenma said through a slightly forced laugh.

He opened his hand and pulled it sharply from Botan's hands, releasing the scent of the flowers of the Tree of Previous Life again; though luckily for Botan, he seemed too distracted to notice.

"Botan's my employee, you idiot!" he said, slapping Botan's shoulder a little harder than seemed necessary.

Botan pouted at him for the attack but he was too busy laughing awkwardly and rubbing at the back of his head to notice.

"Right…" Yusuke muttered, sitting down heavily next to Botan.

"There's not a mark on you," Botan remarked as she eyed him over.

"Yeah, unfortunately my opponent wasn't much of a challenge," he replied, slouching back in his seat.

"Unfortunately?" she echoed.

"Yeah, I was hoping I could have had some fun. Like Hiei's doing right now."

Botan turned back to the screen as Yusuke pointed to it. Hiei was still fencing manically against his opponent, the glint in his eye looking almost predatory and yet at the same time like he was in fact enjoying fighting with his sword for the sake of challenging his skills with a blade. Botan knew that Hiei loved to fight – in fact, he lived to fight – but this was something different. This was almost like when he had fought Mukuro in the last tournament, like he was communicating through his violence again.

Whatever it was, Botan could not take her eyes off of the action, feeling a strange of thrill of concern mingled with excitement every time Hiei's opponent managed to make a glancing shot at him, tearing clothing and sometimes top layers of skin. Watching Hiei using his strength, his speed and his intelligence was a stunning sight to behold, and one that again left Botan breathless to watch.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** The story from (finally) Hiei's point of view: just exactly what has been going through his mind these past 180K words of story?! Hiei's thoughts and Botan gets a surprise late night visitor to her room. **Chapter 24: The Question**


	24. The Question

**A/N:** **This chapter is very wordy…**

 **Recap:** Botan went to spirit world to steal fruit, flowers and water from the Tree of Past Life to help Kurama cultivate his own hybrid of the plant and she narrowly missed being found out by Koenma.

* * *

 **Chapter 24: The Question**

"Finish me."

Hiei remained perfectly still, staring down the length of his arm and sword at the eyes of his fallen opponent.

"It's the proper end to such a battle," the demon said.

"No," Hiei flatly replied, returning his sword to its sheath. "I don't take orders from anyone, least of all someone I've just defeated. And besides, I may want to test your skills again at the next tournament."

Hiei saw the demon's eyes widen, and he heard his own last words echo around his mind, silently noting that they did sound a little too benevolent. Obviously he was still suffering from the time he had been forced to spend in the living world recently, around idiots like that clown who doted on Yukina, their inane and pointless ways apparently influencing his better judgement.

"And the winner is: Hiei!"

Hiei turned from his opponent and began to walk away. Above his head two flying eyeballs hovered over the ring, waiting for the next match to start there. Beyond the limits of the ring stood two people, though Hiei suspected that they had watched his match closely for entirely different reasons.

"You were toying with him," Mukuro greeted him as he neared her.

"Hn, think what you want, I don't care," Hiei smoothly replied.

"Well done, Hiei," Kurama said. "Your skill with a sword continues to surprise me."

Hiei stopped, turning his head to look up at the fox demon. He was wearing his usual serene expression that always carried just a hint of a smile that could be a sign of his contentment but could just as easily be a sign of insolence.

"You better win this round, Kurama," Hiei warned him.

"I thank you for your vote of confidence, Hiei, it is inspiring, as always," Kurama replied.

Apparently today his smile was one of insolence.

"Excuse me," he said, bowing his head to Mukuro before walking past Hiei to take his place in the ring.

Hiei walked on, wondering why Mukuro was not following him.

"Aren't you going to stay to watch this?" she called after him.

"I don't need to," he called back without turning round.

"That's a little presumptuous."

She was following after him at a brisk pace, apparently trying to catch up to him. He did not move faster to get away from her but he did not slow down any either.

"Though if you are leaving, perhaps you should consider going back into a healing chamber," she continued, her voice getting closer all the time. "You're still weakened from your conflict in the preliminary round."

"Hn, did you sleep through the last ten minutes?" he scoffed. "If you're worried about my ability to win, maybe you should check the scoreboard."

Mukuro drew level with him at last, and he could tell that she was less than pleased with his response: not that he particularly cared what she thought about anything he said or did.

"Lucky for you your opponent was significantly weaker than you, even in your current state," she said tightly as they walked on together. "You didn't need to use much energy to beat him, but if that fight had lasted much longer, you might not be walking away as quickly as you are now. And you didn't escape wound-free, as you ought to have against such a pitiful challenge."

"A few minor scratches aren't going to slow me down," he simply replied. "And I won't go back into that tank again. It stinks like your armpit."

"I think you're being reckless."

"You already know that is my nature."

They walked on together in silence for a while. Mukuro's words had been particularly blunt, and Hiei would have quickly cut down anyone else for talking to him in such a manner: but his relationship with Mukuro was an open and – sometimes brutally – honest one. She never wasted words telling him what she thought about anything, and he was equally as frank with her. He liked it that way, and he was sure that she did too.

Though probably neither had any choice in the matter, since they both possessed the ability to read minds, he thought to himself.

"Your upcoming challenges might not be so simple," she continued.

"You should worry about your own battles," he returned, hoping to brush her off. "And worry about when you have to face me again. This time I want to see your full power, because I certainly intend to show you mine."

"You have a few hurdles to pass before you are likely to clash against me," she reminded him. "And I likewise. But be assured that if we do meet, I won't hold back this time."

"Well alrighty then."

Hiei walked on three more steps before stopping abruptly. Mukuro had stopped a short way behind him, and he could only assume that she had done so for the same reasons as he had. His energetic duel in the ring had not been enough to make him break a sweat, but he could feel perspiration soaking into his bandana now.

"…What did you just say?"

Mukuro's voice had been nothing but a muttered utterance, but each syllable had stabbed into Hiei's ears, making another burst of sweat further dampen his bandana.

"I said fine," he lied. "I don't… I don't want you to hold back, because I'm ready for you now."

She did not answer him, but he was past caring. Frankly he was starting to forget what they had even been talking about; all he could concentrate on was the sound of his own voice echoing around his mind speaking the phrase "well alrighty then" like he was some sort of blue-haired, overtly chipper ferry girl. He began to walk on again, trying to ignore the fact that his palms were starting to sweat too, keeping his jaws tightly clenched together and his eyes thinned in his best attempt to retain some degree of control and indifference to his demeanour.

"I'm ready too," Mukuro called after him. "So hopefully we'll have a smashing battle."

Hiei stopped again. He could ignore his own slip-up, but he was not about to ignore hearing Mukuro use that sort of language – quite apart from the ludicrousness of someone of her position speaking that way, where had she even heard such flowery language?

"I'm sure you'll make for a thoroughly decent opponent," she added.

Hiei turned his head to look back over his shoulder at her. She looked about as amused as he felt right then: not at all.

"Something wrong, Hiei?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that," he flatly replied.

"You don't appreciate the language I'm using?"

Hiei hesitated to answer her. It was clearly a leading question, and he sensed that any answer he gave was going to lead him down a route he would rather not take with anyone, least of all Mukuro.

"I thought you might, since you seem to have started talking that way yourself," she added.

He turned around fully to face her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "And all this flowery talk is starting to bore me."

"Flowery talk makes you bored?" she asked. "Then I wonder why it doesn't bother you when it's coming out of the mouth of a cat woman."

Hiei paused, a small frown tugging at his features.

"A cat woman?" he echoed. "I don't know what you mean. Is this some sort of guessing game? I hate games."

"Meow, I'm just a little kitty, I won't take up much your time."

Hiei stiffened involuntarily as he was subjected to both seeing and hearing Mukuro imitating that blue-haired, oar-riding menace. Thankfully she did not actually take on the physical appearance of a cat – whether that was from a lack of effort or an inability due to her scars he could not be sure – but she did paw one hand at the air by her face as she meowed and she clearly raised the pitch of her voice and enunciated every word to perfection in the same manner all spirit world personnel seemed to do.

"Hn."

Mukuro's visible eye thinned.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?" she asked.

"…Hn."

"I see. Hiei I don't know why or even how, but that woman came to my fortress – again – after your victory in the preliminary round. She fawned over your injuries and your nudity before getting drunk on one bowl of tea and telling me that she could free you from yourself – or perhaps I should say she "sang" that to me. You said you don't like games, but luring human women into this realm is a game, and it's one you should know better than to dabble with."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know that you do. And I want you to know that I don't want any part of it. I advise you not to play with human women, but if you must, restrict your games to the living world in future, and try to keep them out of my territory."

Mukuro marched towards him, passing him without a second glance. He was glad that she had left, but a small part of him wanted to call her back, if only to ask her to repeat what she had just told him. The ferry girl had followed him to Mukuro's fortress after his near-loss in the preliminary round? How had she even managed to traverse demon world at such a turbulent time and why had she bothered? Had she gone there alone? Had that idiot Koenma sent her for some reason, or had she gone on her own volition? Why would she even care?

Hiei started to walk on, his pace much slower. It was a difficult thing for him to fully comprehend or even accept, but the woman did care about what happened to him, and she had done what no other ever had in his life: she had demonstrated that care in her actions rather than wasting his and her time with meaningless words. Words were too often just lies, and Hiei had long ago given up placing any significance on anything anyone said to him – except for Mukuro and Kurama, who both only spoke when they had something worth saying, and to a lesser extent Yusuke too – and instead he judged others on their actions. It was too easy to say something, but to prove it was another matter entirely, and when people did bother to prove themselves, Hiei bothered to notice.

She had often spoken as if she cared in the past – he had heard her defend him against criticism in front of Yukina – but she had acted, as though on instinct sometimes, in ways that clearly said that she did care. Perhaps it was the fact that she just did certain things without even seeming to think that confused him the most. It was the small things she did, like trying to nurse him when he was hurt or making "hoodies" for him when she thought he was cold, but mostly it was the way she touched him.

Hiei had been with other women, but those experiences had been perfunctory and bland, something that merely gave a release to a pressing need: just like the fight he had just won, it was just an exercise to keep his skills sharp, it meant nothing and it was no real challenge. With other women, he grabbed at them, they grabbed at him, and after a few minutes of grunting and sweating both went their separate ways with little more than a vague sense of satisfaction. But it was different with that ferry girl. Her hands were so soft and delicate, her fingers to unsure and innocent, and the memory of them ghosting over his skin that night on the beach had been haunting his mind for weeks.

The most infuriating thing was her complete ignorance to just how damned desirable she was. At first he had just thought that was part of spirit world's sick little game: they had deliberately employed the prettiest women they could find, wrapped them up in thick layers of clothes and sent them out to give a false sense of security to human souls and to tease demons who could never touch them. He knew that was why Koenma had sent her when he had wanted Hiei to help out finding that stupid time travel device. That little brat seemed to enjoy dangling his prettiest ferry girl in front of Hiei like a piece of steak in front of a starved dog; and that was going to prove to be a strategy Koenma would live to regret, because eventually Hiei would get his teeth into that flesh.

Unfortunately she was genuinely naïve, barely more aware of her own sexuality than Yukina was of hers. Yukina at least had the excuse that she had been raised in the passionless void of an ice village, but there was no excusing the ferry girl's distinct lack of knowledge. Surely she had been around enough humans to know at least a little bit about the sins of the flesh. And if she had not had that privilege, Hiei was more than happy to fill in the gaps in her education.

It was a painful obsession. At first had just been something to pass the boredom, during his time in a prison cell in spirit world: she had been the only one brave enough – or more likely the only one stupid enough – to bother coming to his cell, and after hearing that other prisoner describe her as a little treasure, Hiei had amused himself by imagining ripping open the wrappings that treasure was so well hidden beneath. It had started to become more addictive during the dark tournament, when she had finally rid herself of her ferry girl uniform, only to replace it with human clothes that were almost as bulky. He could even remember one instance where she had come down to the ring during a fight, dressed in a sparkly kimono and started talking some nonsense about being a manager of some kind, and proceeded to whip off the outfit – Hiei had thought that finally she was about unveil what she had been hiding under all those layers and he might manage to put thoughts of her from his mind – but, much to his chagrin, she had been wearing what looked like men's clothes underneath, and she was just as wrapped up and obscured as before. Except that he had been able to see a little more of her neck. That had been good.

She had spent the rest of the dark tournament dressed in human clothes, but she had still managed to pick out outfits that hid everything, and that was when Hiei realised that it was not solely spirit world that had made her the way she was. He was torn between thinking that she knew she had this effect on him and thinking that she was still, even now, completely clueless about it all. She still dressed as though she was going out of her way to hide every bit skin and every outline of her shape, and everyday it became more infuriating to see.

It was just an obsession. It had gotten worse after the dark tournament, after she had used that stupid whistle and a plea bargain to lure him into that little trap Genkai had set for them. Back then he had still been able to put her from his mind when she was not immediately around. He had been restricted to the limits of that one human city, and he had, as he typically did do back then, been loosing following Kurama's energy pattern. The fox had not done anything unusual until that night, when Hiei had noticed that he seemed to be running around a lot, and that had got his attention. He had started to close in on Kurama's location, only to be deafened by that insufferable whistle. His ears almost bleeding in pain and his senses thrown, he had turned in the tree he was hiding in, finally seeing that he had caught up to Kurama, and that he was with that lumbering oaf and the ferry girl. Hiei believed that he could have remained concealed against the pain in his ears and the temporary debilitating effect of the sound, but the sight of that girl in something that actually showed some skin had been too much, and the next thing he remembered was landing on the ground hard, where the only thing that hurt more than his ears was his pride.

It had been quite difficult to get her out of his head after that. The ferry girl did not walk like most other women, rather she liked to skip about, her hair flicking about all over the place: and that little blue school uniform had flicked about when she had run about in it, revealing flashes of leg and even sometimes a glimpse of skin on her torso. It had been quite difficult to focus on anything, much less that stupid taboo game they had been forced to play after they entered the old mansion, and the problem had only become magnified when Yusuke has passed a comment about the type of skirt the girl was wearing: apparently it could be easily lifted up, and that had only conjured up an image in Hiei's head of him lifting up the ferry girl's skirt and tearing off her underwear with his teeth.

Hiei smirked to himself. The idea of tearing off that girl's underwear with his teeth was still a very appealing one. It was just unfortunate that she did not understand or feel the same way that he did: he wanted one night of intense passion that might actually be enjoyable, but she wanted all that nonsense that the clown did for Yukina. She had proved that by giving him that stupid, sweet and sticky thing at the end of their mission to find The Stolen Moment. Kurama had told him afterwards that he was now somehow indebted to the girl, since there was some sort of rule in the human world whereby if a girl gave a gift to the object of her affections, he was obliged to give her something back. Of course, if the ferry girl could just stop running her mouth and let go of her stupid ideas about romance, he could easily give her something actually worth receiving.

But still she foolishly clung to her ideas about flowers and dancing and dating and gifts. He wished that he could make her see how stupid she was for believing in such frivolous things. He wished that he could make her see how stupid she was for believing that he could ever provide her with such things. For a start, he did not even know what they meant or how to do any of them. Love was a hard enough thing for Hiei to understand, but this romance thing that her fluffy head was filled with was completely alien to him. What possible understanding could he have for love or romance when he had never known either in his life? Even his own mother had not loved him, and he had certainly never felt any love for her. The bandits who had raised him only kept him around because he stole for them, but truthfully they all feared and despised him, and they proved that the day they ostracised him from their group, just like how he had been cast out of the ice village. It was a recurring pattern in his life: he knew that all 76 of Mukuro's top men hated him too and would, given half the chance, cast him out of their elite group and gladly find a replacement 77th man. He was hated wherever he went, but in a way that suited him better, because he could understand hate. And his own twin sister Yukina…

Well maybe Yukina was different. She did not hate him. Though he supposed that was largely because she was such a gentle-hearted girl, so kind and selfless, so entirely unlike he was. Yukina was incapable of hating anyone or anything. She claimed to resent the elders of the ice village for living a life that shut out all feeling and anyone not of their own kind, but there was no malice behind her supposed disliking, she had merely removed herself from the village and let go of her past. It did not seem to be in her nature to hate.

And as for the ferry girl, she was even more of an enigma. She ought to hate him more than anyone: that other dour, dark-haired ferry girl could barely keep the disgust from her face every time she looked at him. Hiei had heard the ferry girls and ogres discussing him during his time in spirit world prison, hushed conversations they mistakenly thought that his demon ears would not hear. They all feared and hated demons, but he was especially repugnant to them because he was a criminal who had broken into Koenma's vault and taken some of spirit world's most prized treasures, slaying innocent ogres and threatening helpless ferry girls in his wake. Every one of them had sneered at him – one ferry girl had actually vomited in fear when she had been asked to check on the wound on his back from his fight against Yusuke, and all he had done was remove his shirt. But that one, pink-eyed, blue-haired girl had never stopped smiling at him for a second. She looked him in the eye, she smiled, and she treated him exactly the same way she treated everyone else she met, and she had more reason to hate and fear him than anyone else in spirit world, because she had been injured by his energy when she had used her powers to try to stop Yusuke's woman from transforming into a demon. He did not know if she was a terrible judge of character or if she was just too stupid to actually understand what he had done, what he did do and the things he said to her: either possibility was likely, since she thought that the orange-haired idiot was dignified and she had tried to pose as a demon in order to retrieve her whistle.

It was not like she was obliged to be nice to him. She was certainly not obliged to like him, and yet apparently she had become so attached to him that her feelings had started to become a cause for concern for her boss. Hiei was, of course, not obliged to take orders from spirit world's spawn, but he had intended to do as Koenma had asked. After all, if he had wiped all ideas about love and romance from that girl's head, he could have started all over with her. He could have just taken her then and there, and she would have hated him afterwards for it, and both of them could have moved on.

But he had to know why.

She thought that she was in love with him. She had said as much that night on the beach, and the idea seemed to be in her thoughts far too often. When Koenma had appeared in demon world alone Hiei's curiosity had been peaked as to where Koenma's most loyal servant was. He had only intended to look for her, nothing more, but when he had found her in demon world he had been surprised, and when he had found her head filled with thoughts of him he had been downright shocked. She actually seemed conflicted and depressed, neither of which seemed typical of her character, which had always seemed to Hiei to be quite shallow and unintelligent. He had always assumed that she was so happy and liked so many people because she was basically too stupid and lacking in depth to think otherwise. He was starting to learn that he was wrong about that, but he did not like to think about that too much.

He had to know why she loved him. Why would anyone love him? He did not even love himself. He had done countless atrocious and repulsive things in his life, things that sometimes even he cringed to recall, things that he considered unforgivable, but the ferry girl seemed to be overlooking them all in a way that he sometimes wished he could do himself. He was exactly what those heartless bitches in the ice village had deemed him to be the day he was born: an abomination, a violent, reckless and cruel monster destined to destroy and bring misery and torment wherever he went. He had accepted that fate and never tried to run from it, sometimes outright embracing it, living the life of a common criminal for many years, both with the gang of thieves who had raised him and beyond on his own and with Kurama. He had killed some of her colleagues to steal the Shadow Sword and if she had been in his way at the time, he would have killed her too. Obviously though, she knew none of this.

But still, ignorance was about his past was not a sufficient excuse for her behaviour. Hiei had to know why she loved him, and he intended to ask her. Unfortunately, that was where he was having the most difficulty with the woman. It ought to be simple to just ask her, and he was sure that she would answer him, but putting the question into words was surprisingly hard to do. He had tried delving into her mind a few times, particularly so when he had called her out after agreeing to wipe her memories. She had been thinking about it, but she had not specified why she felt that way. She must have reasons, and he had to know what they were. But he was learning that he could not use the word "love" in a sentence that also included the words "you" and "me"; which meant that saying "why do you love me" was impossible.

But he had to know why.

"You seem lost in thought, Hiei."

"Fuck!'

Hiei stopped short, turning to glare at the soft face smiling down at him.

"Stop hiding your aura and sneaking up on people!" he snapped irritably.

Kurama's small smile widened slightly and his eyes took on that look that really pissed Hiei off: was it mocking or was it sympathy? Either way he despised it.

"I trust you are contemplating the structure of the tournament this year," he said.

Hiei looked about himself, but unfortunately no screens displaying the ongoing action were nearby. He then looked Kurama over, his eyes slowly narrowing as he saw that the fox was barely more injured than he was.

"Quick victory?" he asked as he met Kurama's eyes again.

"Somewhat," Kurama replied. "A little under fourteen minutes."

Hiei nodded and again he saw Kurama's smile widen slightly. The bastard was scheming something, but, as always, he was being elusive about it, and Hiei had long ago learned that querying Kurama on something he wished to conceal was only going to result in having to listen to frustratingly cryptic responses to what ought to be straightforward questions.

"I know you don't always like to plan ahead as much I do," Kurama continued. "But I hope you have at least considered who else is fighting in this division and that you will be taking adequate measures to prepare yourself for that challenge, should it arise."

Hiei had not, honestly, looked ahead in the division. He had calculated that he would only face Mukuro again if he made it to the final two of B division, but he had not bothered to check who all he might face to get that far. Obviously then that was what the fox was referring to: Hiei might well face a rematch against his former superior.

"I'm always prepared," he said, trying to sound casual. "Perhaps you should consider your own preparations instead."

"I already have," Kurama replied. "I am certain of the opponent I will face in the third round, and I am ready to face that challenge. I just wanted to be sure that you had looked that far ahead, as I think you might face a similar situation to mine."

"The third round?" Hiei repeated. "Are you so confident that you will get through the second round?"

"As a matter of fact yes, I am."

Hiei hesitated, surprised to hear Kurama being so blunt.

"Well alri… I see."

Hiei pursed his lips and turned his head to avoid having to look at a pair of green eyes that had actually started to sparkle with mirth. He had very almost made another stupid mistake in his speech, and by the look on Kurama's face, he had apparently already found out about his earlier slip-up in front of Mukuro. Since Mukuro had long gone, he could only assume that other demons in the vicinity had overheard what he had said, and were now passing it around as some sort of joke: and Hiei really hated jokes.

"I'm sure you will pass the second round too, Hiei," Kurama said smoothly.

"I certainly intend to," Hiei replied, meeting his eyes again.

"Okay dokay," Kurama said, smirking at him.

"…You're a cheeky bastard sometimes, Kurama."

Kurama put on a smile that was begging to punched right off his face again.

"Will you join us tonight?" he asked.

"Are you sparring with Yusuke again?" Hiei asked.

Kurama shook his head.

"Yusuke and I are having dinner at our hotel after the events for today end," he explained.

"You and Yusuke?" Hiei asked, his face twisting slightly. "That's very cosy."

"It won't just be Yusuke and me," Kurama replied. "Koenma will be there too."

Hiei twitched slightly.

"And George the ogre and Botan too, of course."

"Hn."

Hiei turned his head from Kurama again, and from the corner of his eye he saw Kurama turn from him.

"Yes, I rather thought that last part might capture your interest."

"What?"

Hiei's head snapped back around, his eyes fixing onto the back of Kurama's head.

"We're meeting at eight," he called back as he walked off.

"I don't care about that!" Hiei yelled after him. "I never said that I wanted to go! Keep you're foxy nose out of my business, Kurama!"

Kurama stopped, turning his head to look back over his shoulder at Hiei.

"I never knew that you thought my nose was foxy, Hiei," he said, the amusement in his tone blatantly obvious.

"I don't like jokes!" Hiei reminded him.

"My apologies," Kurama replied, turning his head and walking on again. "I'll see you at eight tonight then."

"I never said that I wanted to go!" Hiei shouted.

Kurama kept walking, and Hiei stood watching him for several seconds longer before turning and moving in a different direction. What a presumptuous bastard: as if he would want to go a stupid restaurant with such a stupid group of stupid people.

* * *

"And I win again!" Yusuke said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"I think you're cheating," Koenma muttered sulkily.

"Sir, it's very rude to accuse Yusuke like that!" George pointed out.

Koenma turned to George, eying him over, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

"You work for me, your winnings are my winnings," he said, hooking an arm around George's cache of money.

"Lord Koenma!" Botan protested. "That isn't fair! And if you take all of George's money, he's out of the game!"

Koenma finished combining George's pile with his own before turning Botan, who was sat at his other side.

"You work for me too, Botan…" he said, grinning deviously.

"No!" she yelped, hugging her arms over her own monies. "I won this fair and square!"

"Come on Botan, hand it over," he said.

"Give her a break, Koenma," Yusuke intercepted. "If you take all of George's money and all of Botan's money, they're both out of the game."

Koenma looked across the table at Yusuke and Kurama for a moment before turning back to Botan.

"Hand it over!" he demanded.

"I don't like you in that body, Sir," she wailed. "You're so mean!"

"What are you talking about?" he echoed. "Everybody loves this pretty face!"

"It might be a pretty face, but it's also a meanie face!" she argued.

"Come on Botan, I need to win back my losses from the preliminaries!"

Botan paused and Koenma capitalised on her moment of distraction, pushing her arms aside and clawing her winnings over to merge them with his own.

"Your losses from the preliminaries?" she repeated, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

"Lord Koenma placed a large bet on Shura, remember?" George reminded her.

"Yes, and then Hiei pulled off a surprise win, and I lost it all," Koenma finished irritably.

"You don't sound happy that Hiei qualified," Yusuke commented.

"I'm not unhappy about Hiei qualifying," Koenma replied. "I'm just unhappy that I lost my bet."

"You bet against Hiei?" Yusuke repeated, his voice suddenly much louder.

Koenma frowned slightly, apparently a little taken aback by Yusuke's raised voice.

"…Yes…" he slowly replied. "And I lost…"

"Hey Hiei, feety pyjamas here bet that you would lose to Yomi's brat!" Yusuke yelled.

Koenma, George and Botan all frowned and looked about themselves.

"Yusuke, what are you doing?" Koenma eventually recovered. "I know that Hiei isn't here!"

Koenma waved an arm around the relatively empty restaurant before pointing specifically at the empty seat next to Kurama, which Kurama had asked be left free for Hiei to join them.

"Sure he's here," Yusuke said with a shrug. "He's hiding behind that plant over there. He's been watching us all through dinner."

Koenma, George and Botan all craned their necks to look in the direction Yusuke was pointing, finding a large potted plant standing between their table and the tables by the windows.

"I don't see anything," Botan said, shaking her head. "And why would Hiei hide down there instead of sitting with us at the table?"

Yusuke turned in his seat, looking back at the plant.

"Look closer," he said. "He's quite well hidden, but you can still see his pointy hair sticking up."

Koenma, George and Botan started trying to look for Hiei again, all gasping when the foliage of the plant suddenly rustled as though something had disturbed it. Yusuke laughed, turning back to the table.

"I guess he can't be too angry with you, Koenma," he said. "He hasn't killed you yet. Here, you can deal."

Yusuke dropped the deck of cards down in front of Koenma, who was still looking a little flustered.

"Can we have some money so that we can play too, Lord Koenma?" George asked.

"No," Koenma flatly replied.

"Never mind, George," Botan said, pushing out her chair and standing up from the table. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

"So soon?" Koenma asked, looking up at her suspiciously.

"Well there's not much point in me staying here if you're going to be a big spoilsport and steal all of my winnings!" she snapped back.

He shrugged.

"Goodnight then, Botan!" he said cheerfully, shuffling the cards.

Botan rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Goodnight, Botan," Kurama said to her. "Rest well."

"Thank you, you too Kurama," she replied.

"Later, Botan," Yusuke bid her.

She nodded and waved to George before starting back towards her room. She had been up so early that morning to perform her task for Kurama, and she had used up so much of her spirit energy doing what he had asked, she had been exhausted most of the day. The only time she had found no trouble keeping her eyes open had been when Koenma had found the flowers in her hair and throughout Hiei's elegant duel, which had been so mesmerising it had been impossible to feel even in the slightest bit drowsy watching it.

But Botan was glad when she made it to her room, where she made sure to bolt all three specially encoded locks as she had been advised to do by Yusuke and Koenma, just in case a drunken demon happened upon her during the night. She then lazily made up a bowl of tea, leaving it to stew whilst she washed her face and changed into her pyjamas and brushed out her hair. By the time she was ready to start drinking her tea her eyelids were starting to droop from exhaustion, but she was determined to finish her drink before she went to bed. She decided to brave going out onto the balcony, despite Yusuke and Koenma having also advised her not to lest she was overwhelmed by a flying demon: really, was demon world such a dangerous place?

Botan opened the curtains covering the glass doors, unlocked and slid open one door. She paused, her eyes slowly growing wider as they came to rest on something on the back corner of the small balcony. Slowly she slid the door closed again and turned away from the balcony. She placed her bowl of tea down on the vanity table and rubbed her eyes before turning back to look outside again.

The view had not changed: Hiei was still sitting in the back corner of the balcony, his back rested against the railings, his legs bent in front of himself, his arms folded against his knees and his head lowered, his eyes glaring out at her from the shadow of his forearms.

Botan turned away from him again. This was strange and unexpected and a little bit creepy, she thought. She was unsure what to do and so she let instinct take over: she moved over to the small drinks fridge, opening the door and removing a carton of Milo. She poured it out into a bowl and stirred in another spoon of sugar before lifting it and her bowl of tea and moving back to the door. Balancing the two bowls in one hand she slid the door open again and walked out, placing the bowl of sweetened Milo in front of Hiei before moving to the deckchair by the door and sitting down there to drink her tea.

She was both too tired and too scared that she accidentally mentioned what she had done that morning to start talking, so she contented herself with sipping at her tea and looking out across the city skyline. From the corner of her eye she could see Hiei take a gulp from his own bowl, his head facing into the room. They sat that way for some time, neither looking at the other and both quietly drinking. Botan did wonder how Hiei had managed to scale the side of the building – Yusuke had told her only a flying demon would be able to reach the balcony – but she had seen him shot up trees with alarming ease, so she concluded that his strength combined with his super speed had probably allowed him to leap from balcony to balcony until he reached her floor.

How he knew which room was hers was another matter altogether.

"Why do you–"

Botan paused, her mouth opened over her bowl. Slowly she lowered her bowl to her lap and turned her head towards Hiei. He had his head turned from her completely, apparently watching something through the railings. She kept watching him expectantly, deciding that it was unlike him to talk unless he had something important to say. Eventually he turned his head around to look directly at her.

"Why do you put more sugar in this?" he asked, holding up his half-empty bowl of Milo.

"You like it that way," she plainly replied.

"You… You don't know that," he said, his eyes lowering to his bowl.

Botan turned to look out across the city again, taking another sip of her tea. From the corner of her eye she could see Hiei poking a finger into his drink curiously.

"Would you like me to bring you a fresh one without sugar?" she asked, turning to him again.

"No," he said in a low voice.

He lifted up his bowl and hurriedly finished the contents before placing the bowl down on the balcony floor. He stood up, facing Botan but not looking directly at her. She sensed that he was about to leave and although she knew that she ought to just feel confused she instead started to smile: in his rush to finish his drink, Hiei had gotten most of it on his face, leaving him with a distinct, milky moustache. She giggled a little and suddenly his eyes were on her, glaring almost accusingly. If she did not know him as well as she did, she might have been frightened by the look on his face. Or maybe not, since it was virtually impossible to take a death-glare seriously when it was coming from a face with a milky upper lip.

"You have a little…" she began, pointing at her own top lip.

"Whuh?" he grunted, frowning slightly.

"On your… You have some…"

She waved her finger across her lip. His frown deepened. She sighed.

"Here, let me," she said, rising from her seat.

As she approached him he moved back from her, his ankles colliding noisily with the railings. It amused her that he shirked away from her touch like that, considering their respective power levels. It reminded her of Yusuke's fear of Keiko: though that was result of Yusuke loving Keiko and being keen to keep her happy and have her approval. She had no idea what it was with Hiei.

"Come here," she said, grabbing the underside of his chin in one hand.

He grunted and sneered up at her but she kept smiling. As she dragged one thumb across his lip his face dropped, his eyes growing large and taking on that slightly lost look they sometimes did when she got close to him. She quickly released him again, holding up her thumb in front of his face.

"You see?" she said. "I couldn't let you go out into demon world with a milky moustache, you silly goose!"

Botan then stuck her thumb into her mouth, sucking it clean. As she removed it again her face twisted slightly and she gave Hiei a critical look.

"I don't know how you can like it that sweet," she said.

"Neither do I," he quietly replied.

Botan's face softened.

"…What?" she asked. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"No, it doesn't," he agreed.

"If you don't like it that sweet, why do you still want it that way?"

"I don't know. It's just a fleeting fancy, a mild addiction, if you will."

"You're addicted to it?"

"It's not something I'm proud of."

Botan's frown deepened. Hiei was not looking directly at her, his eyes looking to one side at nothing in particular. She sensed that they were no longer talking about his preference for sweetened Milo, but she could not even begin to guess what he was actually referring to.

"Look at what Kurama does," he said suddenly, meeting her eyes with an intense stare.

"…Wha–"

"Even the most fragile flower can be a powerful weapon, Botan."

Botan froze on the spot, both confused by his words and shocked that he had actually said her name. Within seconds of finishing his words he leapt up onto the railings and launched himself from them, vanishing into the night air. She did not even see which way he went or how he got back down to the ground; though she was far too distracted with trying to decipher his last words to even consider looking for him.

She sighed, collecting his empty bowl and returning to her chair to finish her own drink. After that encounter, she was suddenly wide-awake again, so there was no point hurrying to bed any more.

* * *

Hiei stomped along the alleyway, partly wondering why he had taken himself back to such a wretched part of the city and partly hoping that he would meet some familiar faces there. He was passing the bars, gambling dens, clubs and brothels the bandits he had been raised by like to frequent: and he was in the mood to slowly punch the life out of something, so he supposed that it was quite appropriate that he should be in such a place. He needed something to take his mind off of that woman mothering him and calling him a "silly goose" and still having some sort of strange hold over him; and as he neared a casino he thought he saw exactly what he was looking for: two large security guards stood by the entrance of the building, a scantily-clad, purple-haired woman standing between them, waving flyers at the faces of passers-by.

"You!" Hiei barked, stopping by the doorway and pointing a finger at her.

She stopped short, blinking curiously at his finger before moving her eyes to his face. She found her smile and began trying to offer him a leaflet and some sort of discount for membership to the casino, but he quickly cut her off.

"Fuck me," he said. "Now."

She hesitated, tilting her head slightly, eying him over in thought.

"I'm working…" she said quietly, looking back over her shoulder at the security guards. "But okay, I can spare ten minutes!"

She started to skip towards him cheerfully but he turned from her with a growl of disgust before she reached him. He stomped on along the alleyway, ignoring the insults she screamed after him for rejecting her. As angry as she was, Hiei was far more infuriated with himself: this obsession was starting to spiral out of control. If it could no longer be satisfied with a brief encounter with a stranger then it really was a problem.

Damn that ferry girl.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Late night tea and Milo becomes a routine when Hiei visits Botan again. Both talk a lot, but do either ever really get their point across…? **Chapter 25: The Mystery**

 **A/N:** Some of Hiei's thoughts in this and the next few chapters have been deliberately written ambiguously. It all has a point, I promise. The next chapter (from chapters 1-25) is actually my favourite of the story so far – maybe because something actually happens in it!

And thanks again for reviews, they do keep me writing.


	25. The Mystery

**A/N:** **This is my personal favourite chapter of this fic so far, probably because it does what this fic is supposed to do, and centres around Hiei and Botan!**

 **Recap:** Hiei believes he can't leave Botan alone until he knows why she loves him, but can't bring himself to say the words out loud. He visited her at her hotel room but failed to get his point across, and he started to think that his obsession with her was getting out of control.

* * *

 **Chapter 25: The Mystery**

"I win again!" Yusuke said, grinning endlessly.

"Well played, Yusuke," Kurama said.

"You're cheating, I know you are," Koenma said darkly, leaning across the table towards Yusuke. "I just haven't figured out how yet."

"You're just a sore loser," Yusuke said dismissively. "Now get your bony elbows off my winnings!"

Koenma sat back in his chair with a thump, scowling sulkily at Yusuke.

"Take heart Sir," Botan said gently, touching a hand to his shoulder. "You're still winning overall."

He glanced at either side of himself before grinning brightly.

"That's right, I am!" he said.

Botan and George both cried out in protest as Koenma reached out a hand to either side of himself, grabbing their winnings and pulling them into his own pile.

"Damnit, that's not fair, you bitch!" Yusuke snapped.

"You're being a sore loser again, Yusuke," Koenma said, pretending to look saddened.

"But now we can't play any more," George moaned. "Again…"

"Here, I have a spare deck of cards," Kurama said, pushing a pack of cards across the table to George. "You and Botan can have your own game."

"There, you see?" Koenma said to Yusuke as George and Botan stood from the table. "It's fine. They work for me, so their winnings really are mine, remember?"

"Yeah well now that they've gone, the odds of you winning are one in three instead of three in five…" Yusuke said darkly.

Koenma faltered slightly and Kurama smiled. Meanwhile, George and Botan moved to a table by a window, sitting down opposite each other.

"What game would you like to play, Miss Botan?" George asked as he removed the cards from the box.

"Well since we don't have anything left to bet with, playing poker seems rather pointless…" Botan replied, slouching in her seat dejectedly.

"How about snap?"

Botan brightened then.

"Okay dokay!" she said.

George shuffled the cards before dealing them out between the two of them. He placed down the first card, looking across at Botan expectantly.

"I like playing snap, George…" she said slowly. "But it's a little bit scary."

"Scary?" he echoed, frowning at her incredulously.

"If I put this card down and it's a match, we both try to get the "snap", and it's scary!" she replied.

George pulled a face at her and with a small groan she slapped down her first card. George did not hesitate to place the next card, but Botan became increasingly nervous with every card she placed. She was amazed that George was not affected by the game, since he was quite a sensitive soul, and she was sure that her whimpering and hesitation was doing little to ease the situation: but he sat across from her quite stoically, his eyes moving between the cards on the table and her face expectantly. When the first match appeared Botan screamed out the word "snap" and slapped her hand down onto the cards, sighing in relief when she realised that she had made it there ahead of George.

"…This game really does scare you, doesn't it?" George muttered as she gathered up the cards from the table.

"It's just so… Scary…" she replied, shuffling her cards.

"But Miss Botan, you ferry dead souls to the afterlife," he pointed out. "You must have seen and dealt with much scarier things than this."

"It's the sudden and unexpected things that scare me," she replied. "When I'm ferrying souls I know what I'm doing. This game is just so… Sudden and unexpected."

"Maybe we should play something else?"

"No, no, I'll be fine."

Botan put down the first card, chewing at her lip nervously as George placed his card. They continued on until the next match appeared, and again Botan yelped out louder than was necessary, but this time she was too late, as George's hand landed before hers.

"Oh, darn!" she moaned.

George grinned as he gathered up the cards.

"Oh look at me, I'm so silly!" she said, touching one hand to her cheek. "It's just a game, you're right George, I shouldn't be scared of a game!"

"It is quite funny that this scares you," he admitted with a nervous grin.

"It is, isn't it?" she said.

They both laughed for a little while George shuffled his cards.

"Alrighty, I'll try not to be scared this time," Botan said, straightening her face.

"Okay."

George put down a card and Botan did not hesitate to put down her next card; but she screamed as she saw that there was another match, forgetting entirely to move her hand forwards or say "snap", again losing to George.

"Oh no!" she moaned. "This is no use, I'm too scared to play this game!"

George snorted into his hand and Botan started to laugh again.

"I'm hopeless," she said, rolling her eyes.

It was then that she noticed that she was being watched. Still smiling in amusement at her own silliness, Botan's eyes locked onto something and held their place for several seconds before her brain registered what she was looking at: two tables up from where she sat, Hiei was sitting on the edge of a giant plant pot, looking directly at her. Whilst it was not unusual that he was there, since he had chosen to hide behind plants in the restaurant the night before, what was unusual was that he was sitting in quite a relaxed position, and the look on his face was one she never thought she would ever see. Botan's smile faltered a little, turning from an amused grin into a shy little smile. Hiei was, unbelievably, looking directly at her and he was smiling. And it was not the sort of borderline psychotic grin or arrogant smirk he usually wore, but rather it was a gentle gesture that made him seem to be genuinely happy. His eyes were soft and relaxed, and the look on his face was – it was the same look he gave Yukina – that gentle almost loving look that Botan had wanted to see him use on her.

Botan suddenly felt her face growing hot and she lowered her eyes, nervously tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She started to look up again, the first sight that greeted her being a curious George, who had obviously noticed the change in colour of her face and was trying to figure out what had happened.

"Are you alright, Miss Botan?" he asked.

She started to nod, her eyes drifting back to where Hiei had been sat: but he was gone. Her face dropped and she looked about the restaurant desperately, but could not see any sign Hiei had ever been there.

"Miss Botan?" George pressed.

"Oh, uh…"

Botan turned back to him, her mind only able to focus on one thing: she had to find Hiei.

"Oh dear, is that the time?" she said, lifting one sleeve as though revealing a watch that was not actually there. "I should go to bed. A girl needs her beauty sleep!"

She stood up and George held out a hand towards her.

"But we were in the middle of a game!" he pointed out.

"Oh, well, you were winning," she said. "I was so scared, I'm sure you would have won the whole thing. Goodnight!"

Botan ran from the restaurant so quickly George barely had time to say "but Miss Botan" before she was out of earshot. She checked the bar and the reception lounge before jumping into an elevator and moving up to the floor she was staying on. She was not sure if Hiei would be up there as he was not staying at the hotel, but perhaps he would go there to visit one of the others, she decided, or at least she could go out onto the balcony of her room to get a good view over the streets outside, where she might be able to catch sight of which way he had gone.

After running the lengths of the halls Botan unlocked the door to her own room and stepped inside, gasping as she felt a gust of air behind her. She turned around, but saw nothing. She frowned, turning in a complete circle on the spot. She appeared to be alone, but she was certain that something had followed her into the room. She slowly closed her door, not bothering to lock it in case whatever had followed her in needed to be chased back out again. As her hands slid from the door she heard the curtains cover the balcony doors opening and she spun around, torn between shock and relief to see Hiei unlocking the doors and sliding them open. She watched him step out onto the balcony and hop up onto the railings, where he sat down, letting his legs hang over the edge.

Botan glanced over her shoulder at the door she had just come through. There really was no point in locking it now, she decided, since it was unlikely any demon who had seen Hiei fight would want to try to enter the room: and even if they did, Hiei would quickly deal with the problem. And, she thought, she did not especially want to voluntarily lock herself into a room with Hiei.

She took two steps into the room before stopping again. Why, she wondered, had Hiei chosen to go outside and sit on the railings? He was balancing himself on something that was barely a few inches thick, and the fall at the other side was quite substantial. Though when she thought about it, Botan could remember several other instances of Hiei choosing to balance himself precariously on ledges rather than sit in a chair like a normal person.

She sighed, unsure of what to do. Remembering what had happened the night before, she decided to just do exactly what she had then: she boiled the kettle and made up a bowl of tea, leaving it to soak whilst she went into the bathroom to change. She secured the door behind herself and checked the room twice over to be sure that Hiei had not snuck in behind her before changing into her pyjamas and brushing out her hair. A quick look at her reflection told her that she was still a little pink about the cheeks and her eyes had a slight deer-in-the-headlights quality to them, but she compensated for both with a smile and took herself back out of the bathroom.

Botan poured out a carton of Milo for Hiei, pausing by the sugar bowl as she remembered what he had said the night before. She slowly closed her fingers around a teaspoon, unsure whether Hiei had been trying to tell her that he did or did not like extra sugar in his Milo. Eventually she shrugged and added the sugar, stirring it in. She took both bowls out onto the balcony, carefully balancing Hiei's bowl on the railings at his side before taking a seat in the deckchair by the doors. She watched him pick his bowl up and take a sip. As the bowl left his lips he turned his head, glaring back over his shoulder at her.

"I added more sugar," she said. "You like it better that way."

"You presume to know me?" he grunted.

"No, but you've always preferred it that way," she replied, before sipping from her tea.

"Hn."

He turned from her and took another mouthful of his drink.

"I haven't always preferred it this way," he said quietly.

"Really?" Botan echoed.

"I don't like sweet things," he continued. "I suppose I got a taste for it this way during my time in prison."

Botan pulled a face at the back of his head, glad that he was not looking at her as it allowed her to express her true feeling through her facial expressions without him noticing.

"You didn't like it when you were in prison," she said slowly. "The only way I could get you to take it was if I made it sweeter."

"Hn."

Botan arched her eyebrows expectant of a more comprehensive answer, but one never came. Instead Hiei continued to consume his drink. He was drinking it slower this time, she noticed, presumably to stop himself from getting another embarrassing milk moustache.

"You don't like it sweet."

Botan's face twisted, and again she was glad that Hiei was not looking at her.

"No…" she slowly answered, holding up her bowl of tea as though she thought Hiei might see the gesture. "I prefer it bitter."

"I've noticed," he replied.

"I don't like sweetening it," she continued, looking into her bowl. "It takes away from the earthiness."

"Hn."

Botan lifted her eyes to Hiei again, but still he was turned away from her and he was again sipping from his bowl. She was once more unsure if they were still talking about their choice of beverage or not, but she decided that Hiei was usually very direct in his speech, so she must be mistaken.

"I don't understand how you could be satisfied with something bitter," he said quietly.

Botan shrugged, forgetting that he would not see her actions.

"I don't understand how I could be satisfied with something this sweet," he added, his voice barely audible.

"I'll stop sweetening it if you don't like it," she offered.

He shook his head.

"It's too late for that," he said, sounding almost irritated. "I've tasted it already, nothing else will satisfy my hunger now. I've become addicted to the sweetness. It disgusts me, but I can't take it any other way."

Botan screwed up her face.

"We can quite easily start again," she said tightly. "If you don't like it sweet, I won't ever make it sweet for you again."

"You don't understand," he replied.

"No, I don't think that I do," she said, tilting her head curiously as he sipped at his drink again. "If you don't like it sweet, why do you keep coming back for more?"

"Hn, I was hoping you could tell me the answer to that question."

Botan frowned and pouted. This was becoming infuriating.

"Well obviously you do like it like that, mister fussy pants!" she said moodily. "If you didn't like it, you wouldn't still want it. Maybe you should try it without the extra sugar. It's already sweet you know, adding that extra sweetness just makes it sickly!"

"It's unbearably sweet," he replied. "Sweeter than any other of its kind. I hate all the others, but this one, even though it is disgustingly sweet, is the one I can't stop my hunger for."

"Well now you're not making very much sense at all, Hiei."

"I've tried to substitute it with others, I've tried having it less sweet, but nothing else is good enough any more."

"Then maybe you are addicted to the sweetness."

"I think I am."

"Well it's your own fault for tasting it that way. I would never want it that sweet it would make me sick. I prefer mine dark and bitter."

"Hn."

"And besides Hiei, is it really so bad that you like it that sweet? It's okay to like things, you know. When you want a taste of it, you should just help yourself and have it as sweet as you want it. Maybe if you didn't deny yourself the sweetness your cravings wouldn't bother you so much."

"Every time I taste the sweetness I move one step closer to losing control. Is that what you want, woman? Do you want me to lose control?"

Botan began pulling a face at the back of Hiei's head but she quickly straightened her features out again when he turned his head to look back at her.

"You wouldn't like me if I lost control," he said, his eyes narrowing.

"Really Hiei," she responded. "It's just a little something sweet. You don't need to be so uptight about it."

"It's not just a little something," he shot back. "Because it's never enough. I always want more."

"Well then I can get you some more!"

Botan sighed, thumping her bowl of tea down onto the floor and crossing over to the railings. She grabbed Hiei's bowl, which was almost empty, and tugged at it, but he held on, the contents sloshing dangerously up the sides of the bowl. She met his eyes with a scowl, but her anger faded when she saw the way he was looking at her.

"Have you ever tried it sweet?" he asked quietly.

"I don't like it sweet," she replied.

"But why not?" he asked.

"It's just the way my tastes are!"

"But I must know why."

"Hiei, it's just a drink, it's not that important!"

"Have you ever even tried a sweet one?"

"I've never taken it as sweet as you do, but I don't like it even slightly sweet. I prefer it dark and bitter."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Neither do you!"

Hiei briefly bared his teeth at her, and Botan then noticed that he was breathing heavily, as though he had just endured a particularly intense workout.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

His face softened slightly and his hand dropped from the bowl. Botan grabbed at it more firmly, barely catching it before it fell clear from the balcony. She brought it around, swirling around the small amount in the bottom and looking into it pensively.

"I'll just…" she said. "I'll… Bring you another one."

"I don't care about that," he snapped, turning his head from her.

She lifted her head, frowning at him curiously. She saw his shoulders tense in an all-too familiar way, indicating that he was about to dart off. Somehow she managed to grab a hand into the sleeve of his coat as he tried to lift himself up and he stopped short, turning to look at her with wide eyes, his face looking unusually soft in his evident confusion.

"Don't go," she whispered.

He started to frown and she began to grow nervous.

"I mean, don't just go like that," she hurriedly corrected herself. "Without… Without saying goodnight. It's rude."

Hiei grunted out something indecipherable, his frown deepening.

"It's not good etiquette," Botan told him.

"Etiquette?" he echoed.

"…Yes…"

Botan lowered her eyes, finding it difficult to keep looking at Hiei when he was glaring down at her so intensely. Instead she looked down at her own fingers gripped into his sleeve. She slowly lessened her hold as she saw that her knuckles had been white from the force of her grasp. She untangled her fingers and smoothed out the material of his coat, disguising the imprints her fingers had left. She could still feel him staring down at her, but she was not brave enough to look at him yet: a part of her was still shocked that she had just tried to lecture him on etiquette. She continued to smooth her fingers up the sleeve of his coat, keeping her eyes on her actions until she reached his shoulder, where she finally found the courage to move her eyes back to his.

As their eyes met, Hiei distinctly moved his face closer to Botan's, narrowing the gap between them. She swallowed hard before slipping her fingers further along his shoulder and tilting her chin upwards, bringing their lips closer still. He growled and slid a hand around the back of her neck and she dropped his bowl of Milo, barely caring when it fell over the edge of the railings, tumbling through the air to the ground far below.

Botan closed her eyes as their lips met, feeling more than a little surprised when the contact was tender and inviting. It was like every time she kissed him he became gentler: or maybe she was just becoming accustomed to his brusque ways and they no longer seemed so harsh. She relaxed into him and parted her lips to allow his tongue to slip inside her mouth, smiling a little when she tasted over-sweetened Milo on him. He made a small grunt and pulled back from her then. She opened her eyes slightly to look up at him, finding him frowning down at her in a mixture of anger and confusion.

"You taste sweet," she said lazily.

"Hn," he grunted, looking only a little less irritated. "Does it amuse you?"

"Does… Does what amuse me?"

"The…"

Hiei's mouth twitched, and Botan sensed that he was struggling with something, though he was such a complex man it was difficult for her to even begin guessing what had bothered him this time.

"Goodnight," he said suddenly.

"Hiei!" she cried.

But he slid from her grasp and shot off into the air, vanishing from her sight in a blur of black and white. She sighed in despair, shaking her head. She moved back over to the deckchair and collected her bowl of tea before taking herself back into her room and closing and locking the balcony doors. She locked the room door too, deciding that she was unlikely to receive any more visitors that night. She dragged her feet over to the vanity table, sitting down at it with her tea and looking at the pouting face that was looking back out of the mirror at her.

She was quite disappointed that Hiei had gone. But, she thought, seeing her reflection slowly start to smile, maybe he would be back the next night.

* * *

Hiei hesitated by the entrance to the hotel bar, waiting until the blue ogre had carried the sleeping adult form of Koenma out of the room before entering himself. He was glad that those two had gone, since he was not in the humour to have to deal with any of spirit world's idiots, least of all spirit world's prodigy in his false adult body.

Inside the bar the number of patrons had dwindled significantly, but Yusuke and Kurama were still sitting on stools at the bar, laughing about something. Hiei quickly moved over to join them, sitting next to Yusuke wordlessly.

"Hey Hiei!" Yusuke greeted him.

"Hn," Hiei grunted back.

"Hiei, it's so nice of you to join us," Kurama said.

Sarcastic old bastard, Hiei thought to himself.

"Did you see Koenma leaving?" Yusuke asked Hiei. "I didn't know he could maintain that form when he was unconscious!"

"Me neither," Kurama said. "I still maintain that we should have assisted George in returning Lord Koenma to his room."

"Hey, George insisted he didn't need any help," Yusuke replied. "And besides, he loves running around after Koenma. It gives his life purpose. He moans about it all the time, but if he really hated it, he wouldn't still be doing it, right?"

"Theirs is an unhealthy relationship," Hiei muttered. "I prefer not to think about it."

Yusuke laughed, slapping Hiei on the shoulder.

"Yeah it is a bit master-and-slave," he said. "But I don't think it's anything deeper than that. Not on Koenma's part, anyway. He was all over Botan yesterday."

Hiei sat up abruptly.

"I'm not sure I understand," Kurama said curiously.

"After my fight, I went into the stands to find the brat," Yusuke explained. "And when I got there, he was holding hands with Botan. I asked him what was going on, and he got really embarrassed about it. I always thought he had a thing for Ayame, but I guess I was wrong."

"I think you're probably mistaken, Yusuke," Kurama insisted. "I can't imagine either Botan or Koenma actively pursuing a relationship with each other. Quite apart from the impropriety of such a venture, I don't believe there is any attraction between them. I'm sure Koenma was just concerned that you had misinterpreted the situation."

"I dunno, he looked pretty flustered…"

"I am certain that you are mistaken, Yusuke."

"You weren't there, fox boy, you didn't see what I did."

"I don't need to. I can guarantee that Botan's affections very definitely lie elsewhere."

Hiei shifted his eyes to Kurama, glaring at him predatorily. That fox had been scheming something lately, and although Hiei had yet to pinpoint exactly what it was, he sensed that he was suddenly one step closer. Something about the look in those large green eyes told him that whatever it was that he was up to, it somehow involved the ferry girl; and that was both unexpected and extremely unwelcome.

"Seriously?" Yusuke said. "You're not trying to say she's still wasting her time trying to turn three eyes here into her dream guy?"

Hiei growled and tensed, but Yusuke did not notice, his attention on Kurama, who was smiling at his words.

"No indeed," he replied softly. "I am sure that Botan already realises that Hiei is not the romantic sort. Or if she hasn't realised it yet, I have a feeling that she will very soon have her eyes opened to that fact."

"…What?" Yusuke muttered.

Kurama smiled at Yusuke, but his eyes shifted to Hiei and his smile faded slightly. They stared at each other for several seconds of tense silence before Yusuke leaned forwards, blocking their view of each other. He looked from one to the other with a confused frown.

"Hey, what's going on here?" he asked. "You two are always keeping secrets! I'm starting to feel like the Kuwabara of this group!"

"If only you were as good-looking," Hiei muttered, turning to the barman. "Three more of these," he said, pointing at Yusuke's half-empty glass.

"Well that's not messed up at all," Yusuke said with a grin. "You think your twin sister's boyfriend is good-looking, huh?"

"Fuck off, Yusuke," Hiei sighed.

"Hey, how is your little sister anyway?" Yusuke continued. "I haven't seen her in weeks! Keiko said she's about ready to burst! Just think: pretty soon you'll be Uncle Hiei!"

Hiei gave Yusuke a cold sideward glance that contained enough menace to make a demon approaching the bar turn and run away again.

"Man, I thought my family was screwed up," Yusuke said, shaking his head and pretending to look contemplative. "My mother and all her issues with drink and teenage pregnancy, my relation to Raizen, and all the problems he had… But that's nothing compared to you. You've got your sister, who's hired you to find her brother for her – which is actually you, but you won't tell her – you've got Kuwabara, who, since he is sticking by your sister through her pregnancy, is basically your brother-in-law now, then you've got Shizuru, Kuwabara's sister, who in a way is your sister-in-law, and then you've got Botan. Though according to Kurama, she's not interested in you any more. I think you missed the boat there, buddy. She got you a present on Valentine's Day, that was like your best chance to get in there with her."

"Say what you want about me, but leave my sister out of your foolish jokes," Hiei warned him.

"You don't think it's even slightly ironic that a tough guy demon like you has a sister who is in love with a human and you yourself have got the hots for a ferry girl?" Yusuke returned.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

The barman placed down three glasses in front of them and held out his hand towards Hiei for payment.

"I'm part of the tournament," Hiei flatly told him.

"Well good for you, little guy," the barman replied. "But I ain't running a charity here. I don't care who you are, you still gotta pay."

"Obviously I didn't make myself clear," Hiei said in a lower voice. "I don't intend to pay for these, and if you insist on trying to make me, I will make the next ten minutes the last ten minutes of your life, and every second of them will be a swirling torrent of pain and misery."

The barman leaned back a little, doubt creeping across his features.

"I'll pay for this round," Kurama offered.

"You're pathetic!" Hiei snapped at him.

But Kurama ignored him, handing over a handful of cash to the barman.

"Buy us a drink too?" a white-haired girl asked, smiling sweetly at Kurama.

He paused, his jaw hanging open. For an old man, Kurama often got far too discomfited around women: though Hiei supposed that was because the fox had spent the last twenty years living in the human world, surrounded by human women, who were nothing like the women of demon world.

"I appreciate the offer," Kurama eventually recovered. "But I only seek to share a few quiet drinks with my friends here."

The woman's face dropped and she stepped past him to Yusuke. She slowly raked her eyes over him before turning to her companion.

"You can have this one if you want," she said, sounding almost bored.

She then approached Hiei, eying him over and looking only a little less displeased with what she saw.

"You're quite short, but I suppose you do have a pretty face," she concluded.

"What a pity I can't say the same for you," Hiei flatly replied.

"Hiei!" Yusuke hissed, glaring at him as though he had just said something ridiculous.

"That's alright, I quite like the bad boy type," the girl said with a shrug.

"You're really, really attractive," Yusuke said nervously to the leopard demon sliding an arm around his shoulder and her tail around his waist. "But I'm a taken man. But if I wasn't, I promise I would absolutely be into you."

"Nobody ever has to know," she whispered, leaning into him.

"Well, I would know, and that's bad enough," Yusuke said.

Hiei arched his eyebrows. He was surprised at the former spirit detective's resolve, and more than a little impressed. The woman clinging to him was especially attractive, and really, how was Yusuke's human woman ever going to find out if he did have a night of passion while he was in demon world?

The leopard girl moaned and slowly released her hold of him.

"Lucky you, bad boy," the other woman said to Hiei. "You get us both tonight."

Yusuke made a small squeaking sound, his eyes crossing over. Hiei rolled his eyes in disgust at his response: another idiot who needed to spend more time in demon world to get his priorities in check. He then turned his attention to the two women standing in front of him. They were both strikingly attractive, and had presumably only approached him because they recognised him from the tournament. Usually women did not bother with him unless they saw how powerful he was or else they noticed the priceless pair of hiruiseki hanging around his neck, and then their only reasons for approaching him were obvious and shallow.

"And if I say yes, what do you intend to do?" he asked.

"Give you all of this," the woman replied, ripping open her top.

Yusuke slid from his stool and Kurama barely caught him by the arms before he fell to the ground. An understandable reaction, Hiei thought to himself. What was not understandable was what he found himself doing next. His mind went numb and some perverse part of his subconscious took control of his body, making him pick up his drink from the bar and throw it over the girl baring herself to him.

"I don't think so," he said, slipping from the stool and leaving the bar.

Hiei walked – at what was a ridiculously slow pace for him – from the bar, across the reception area of the hotel and out onto the street beyond. He walked all the way along the street until he reached a junction in the road, where he turned and walked on towards the city limits. His brain stayed unusually empty as he walked, his feet turning at appropriate points, his mind really only awakening when he found himself standing outside the same hotel he had left almost half an hour before.

Hiei could not remember ever turning down such a blatant offer of female company as the one he had just received, and a part of him was still shocked that he had. But, he thought bitterly, there were two pressing reasons why he could not have accepted. First of all, even two very attractive demon women would not be enough to satisfy the want he had for that ferry girl, and secondly, no demon woman would do that thing that the ferry girl did, that thing he had never cared for before but had suddenly taken a distinct liking to.

Demon women – or at least, the demon women Hiei had been with – did not kiss. Hiei knew what kissing was of course, but he had never actually kissed a woman on the lips before that ferry girl came along. He had always wondered what the appeal was, and that day she had said that she wanted to kiss him had just seemed like the perfect excuse to try it out. It had seemed simple enough, and when she had just let him push himself on her the first twice, he had assumed that was all there was to it – it was quite boring and pointless, and he had found more pleasure in touching her, feeling her skin against his.

But then she had kissed him, and that had changed everything.

That night she put on men's clothing and came to demon world she completely changed everything for Hiei. He was furious that night because she had actually said that she had only kissed him to teach him how it was meant to be done: obviously she had been able to tell that he did not know what he was doing, and that was just beyond embarrassing, especially coming from a ridiculously naïve virgin like her. And the next time he had kissed her she had actually tried to stop him, accusing him of kissing like a monster: and that was when he realised that she did not know about his lack of experience, but rather she just thought that was how a demon kissed.

He wanted to learn, but he was not about to go asking for lessons. And frankly, she was the only person he wanted to do it with anyway. He wanted to make her feel the same way she made him feel that night she had kissed him to steal back her whistle. But he was not about to have her laughing at him, which is what she seemed to be doing earlier that night when he had kissed her. He was not proud of his lack of knowledge on the subject, especially when she was apparently so well versed in it. He wondered where she had learned that skill, or even if she had learned it all. Maybe ferry girls were just naturally gifted in that area, just to add to their appeal as unobtainable lovers.

A tight, tense pain told Hiei that he could not wait any longer. Patience had never been something he had mastered or even cared to try, and so he began scaling the guttering of the building adjacent to the hotel the ferry girl was staying in, taking himself all the way to the roof before stopping to assess the situation. He closed his eyes and removed his bandana, letting his jagan go to work seeking her out.

He cursed under his breath when he saw her asleep in her bed. She was lying on her back, arms and legs sprawled out at her sides and her hair fanned out around her head. She was in a deep sleep already, and Hiei doubted she would even notice if he snuck into her room. He could probably force the balcony door open, climb into her bed and have her out of her clothes before she even woke up. He smirked to himself at the thought of her waking up to find herself completely naked and in his arms, imagining the shocked look on her face and what sort of stupid little phrase she would have to say about it all; probably something like "oopsie" or "oh goodness".

Hiei closed his jagan and opened his own eyes, slowly frowning as a strange sensation washed over him. He had been quite enjoying thinking about taking the woman by surprise, but the minute he had thought about her saying something about it, the joy had vanished and left him feeling nauseous. Probably just because her manner of speech annoyed him so much, he decided. After all, what other reason could be possibly have for not wanting to take advantage of her?

Hiei scowled up at the balcony leading to her room. Since she was already asleep, he might as well just let her sleep, he decided. The second round of the tournament did not start until the day after tomorrow, he thought to himself, and since the others all seemed to be following a routine, he could just wait until the next day. She would be in the restaurant again and playing cards the next night, and once she was done with that nonsense he would be ready for her.

And with that thought Hiei sat down by an air vent on the roof of the building he was on, leaning back against the side of the vent and closing his eyes. Going back to Mukuro's was a waste of effort, and he was bored of that place, that was why he was sleeping on the roof of a random building by the hotel. Nothing else. Just something to relieve his boredom.

* * *

Botan tried to smile as Koenma turned to her sharply, giving her another warning glare. She grabbed a hand at her leg, hoping to still it from juddering about. She had been jumpy all day, though she was not really sure why. She felt anxious about something, and as she had sat down with Koenma, George, Yusuke and Kurama for a meal in the hotel restaurant, her nerves had begun to consume her. She had already broken two vases of water and inadvertently bounced a bread roll off the table and into a nearby demon's bowl of soup.

"Are we playing cards again tonight?" she asked her boss, hoping to distract them both from her edgy nerves.

"Do you even have any money to play?" Yusuke asked her.

"Probably not," she replied, turning to him, silently glad of his interception. "Lord Koenma took all of my money last night."

"You should just rip him off in your room, Botan," Yusuke replied.

He lifted up the menu then, his face disappearing behind it. Botan reached over the table and grabbed the menu, yanking it down to look at him. He arched his eyebrows at her expectantly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean just order a load of room service," he replied. "The toddler's paying for your room, right? So get him back for taking your money by taking some of his: order room service and charge it to the room."

"…Room service?" Botan repeated quietly.

"Yeah, it's when you call the hotel staff from the phone in your room and have them bring you stuff," Yusuke explained. "Order a bottle of champagne and some truffles, and go nuts. That'll teach him."

Yusuke pulled his menu from Botan's fingers and propped it up in front of his face again, but again Botan grabbed it and pulled it down.

"Botan!" he protested. "It's not a difficult concept to grasp!"

"I can order food to be delivered to my room?" she asked.

"Yes!"

"Could I order an entire meal?"

"Yes!"

"Could I order two meals?"

"You could order twenty-two meals if you wanted!"

"Can I order drinks, too?"

"Yes!"

Botan nodded slowly before rising to her feet, knocking over Koenma's glass of milk as she did so.

"Hey!" he protested.

"I'm sorry Sir, I'm so tired today," she lied. "I'm going to my room, I'll just order a meal to be delivered there, and I'll be going straight to bed after that."

"Why don't you just eat with us and go to your room after the meal?" he asked as he righted his glass and began wiping up the spilt milk with his napkin.

"Oh, well, I'm just so tired, if I eat in my room, I'll be ready to just go to my bed lickety-split after I finish my meal."

Koenma looked up at her suspiciously, but she grinned down at him radiantly and he sighed in defeat.

"Don't charge too much to my account," he grumbled.

"Goodnight everyone!" she said cheerfully.

She turned and ran from the restaurant, leaving Koenma watching her in a state of bemusement.

"She didn't look so tired to me…" he muttered.

Oblivious to his last comment, Botan hurried to the elevators, pushing her way into the first one that opened and pressing the button repeatedly for her own floor in her own impatience. As soon as the doors opened again she leapt out of them, racing to her room and hurrying inside. As she locked the door behind her, she began wondering what she would need to do to let Hiei know where she was: he would probably go to the restaurant to look for her initially, she thought. She moved across the room, deciding to open the balcony doors and look outside for him first of all. As she drew back the curtain she was torn between delight and downright shock when she saw Hiei standing in the middle of the balcony looking in at her.

She gladly unlocked and slid open the door, watching him step inside the room with an insatiable grin on her face.

"Hn, you were expecting me," he said as he passed her.

"Yes," she replied, turning to look at him as he walked further into the room. "I'm really glad you came again."

"I need to ask you a question."

"Alrighty…"

"Why do you…"

Botan waited patiently for Hiei to finish, watching curiously as he clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides.

"You…" he muttered. "Why… Do you…"

He muttered out a curse under his breath and turned abruptly, marching back towards the balcony.

"No, Hiei, don't go!" Botan said, leaping into the doorway and spreading her arms at her sides to halt his progress.

He stopped in front of her, glaring at her in a way she knew she ought to be afraid of.

"Please don't go," she begged. "Just… Just stay and have dinner with me. Please?"

He turned his head to one side, and although Botan was glad that he had broken eye contact with her, she was a little worried that he might dash out of the door behind him.

"I can order you hot Milo," she tried. "With lots of extra sugar! It will be so sweet, you'll be tasting it for days afterwards!"

He grinned darkly as though she had just said something he found amusing in a perverse fashion, and slowly lifted his eyes to hers.

"I'll stay long enough to get another taste," he said in a low voice.

"Oh, super!" Botan cried, clapping her hands. "We'll order lots of tasty, yummy dishes, and we can eat out on the balcony and watch the sunset and it will all be just smashing!"

"Hn."

Botan skipped over to the phone, readying herself to place an order for their meal, barely able to concentrate on what she was doing as an idea occurred to her: watching the sunset and sharing a meal with Hiei was sort of like going on a date with Hiei…

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei plus Botan plus room service equals chaos! Botan tries to play Hiei at his own game and Hiei tries to finally end his fixation with the ferry girl, but will either of them get what they want? (Probably not, this fic is so far from over that it's insane…) **Chapter 26: The Date**


	26. The Date

**A/N:** **This chapter is stupid long, (could easily have been two chapters, exactly halfway through there is a great place to end a chapter) but it's all Hiei and Botan! Yay! Finally! Also, the second half might be a bit intense. You have been warned!**

 **Recap:** Hiei visited Botan twice more at her hotel room, but despite his best attempts at talking around the subject, he did not manage to ask or get an answer to his question.

* * *

 **Chapter 26: The Date**

Hiei was crouched in the corner of the balcony, standing on the railings, one foot on either side of the corner. There was a bit of a wind tugging at him, but his balance was as impeccable as ever, despite the railings being mere inches wide and the drop being one of quite dizzying proportions. He did not, of course, really need to remain in such a position, but he felt the need to the distance himself from what the woman was doing, if only until he had figured it out for himself.

After failing yet again to just ask her why she had feelings for him, and failing two nights in a row to draw an answer out of her through what he had thought was a pretty obvious figure of speech about how they liked their hot drinks, he was left with no other choice but to stay with her a little longer that night. Clearly she had planned it this way too, and that was quite interesting to him as well. She had not even bothered to ask him what sort of food he wanted before placing her order for room service, and now she was doing something strange with the spare bedsheets in the room, humming a strange tune to herself the whole time.

She was meticulously folding the sheets to a certain shape and size and piling them on the balcony by the door: Hiei was beginning to suspect that she was making a bed for him. He had witnessed this sort of behaviour in other females before. It was called "nesting". Usually it meant that the female wanted the company of the male, but by making him a substandard bed in a separate room from her own, she was indicating that she was not ready to take him in her own bed yet. This really just complicated matters further, he thought to himself. It was bad enough that she was harbouring some sort of romantic feelings for him, but inviting him to sleep with her – without actually sleeping with her – was a little demanding and needy for Hiei's liking.

"Isn't this fun?" she said suddenly, smiling at him sweetly as she smoothed out a blanket.

Hiei decided not to answer her, since the situation that he seemed to have put himself into was his own personal idea of hell: sleeping outside of a woman's room waiting for her permission to advance their relationship like he was some sort of slave to her whims. Hiei had never slept outside a woman's room waiting for her before, he was not about to start that sort of ludicrous behaviour now, no matter how sickeningly attractive and alluring the woman in question might be to him. She could smile as much as she wanted but he was leaving the hotel at the end of the night, and she would just have to deal with it.

He would probably just sleep on the roof of the adjacent building again, he decided, since it was conveniently close and he could see what she was doing and return if it seemed like she wanted him to. There was nothing undignified or pitiful about that.

"There's quite a wind out here tonight, isn't there?" she asked, rising to her feet. "I hope it doesn't blow away all our food…"

Hiei tensed slightly as she touched a finger to one corner of her mouth, frowning down at the little "nest" she had created. He wondered what was going through her mind, if she was thinking about moving it indoors and closer to her own bed; but before he could formulate any more possibilities or use his jagan to check the facts, the wind picked up again, billowing through her ponytail and assaulting his nasal passages with her scent. He closed his eyes and focussed on keeping his balance as every mouthful of air he inhaled brought more of the sweetness into him, until soon he could taste her in the back of his mouth. When he opened his eyes again he was almost certain that his lust was evident in his eyes, but, unsurprisingly, she appeared not to notice.

"I ordered us the house specials!" she said, clasping her hands by one side of her face.

Hiei quirked an eyebrow at her in a small gesture of amusement. Obviously she had no idea what the house special was at a restaurant in demon world.

"And I ordered lots of hot Milo for you, and green tea for me, and I ordered pudding!"

Hiei was still unsure if it amused or just infuriated him that the woman got so damned excited about something as mundane as food. Admittedly, the house special was something he was going to enjoy, but he suspected that she was going to be sleeping with an empty stomach that night, and that the ridiculously joyful smile she was wearing now was very quickly going to vanish when their order arrived.

"I wasn't going to order pudding, I wouldn't normally order pudding, but I thought I should since you like sweet things so much!"

Hiei narrowed his eyes at her. He wondered why everything she said had to end in an exclamation mark.

"I don't like sweet things," he pointed out.

Her smile vanished.

"But last night you said you were addicted to sweet things!" she said, sounding almost sulky in her tone.

"I said no such thing," he replied. "I said I like just one sweet thing."

She rolled her large pink eyes up to the sky, pouting and frowning slightly as though trying to remember something. It was quite an infuriating look, because it was usually followed by a sudden outburst. It was the sort of look she wore when someone was trying to tell her that there was no hope in a certain situation, but her silly little brain was too determined to give up, and so it began concocting stupid ideas to save the day.

"Ah, I see!" she said suddenly, her radiant smile returning and her eyes meeting his again. "You don't like sweet things, but you do like your drinks sweet!"

"I don't like my drinks sweet," he flatly replied. "It's just this one thing that I've taken a taste for."

"Just the Milo? How odd! Because it's already sweet, isn't it? But you like it even sweeter!"

Hiei was almost certain that she did not understand the metaphor. It was frustrating that she did not understand it, but at the same time slightly soothing, because if she did understand it and she was still choosing to make such remarks, she was clearly mocking his attraction to her.

But he did not think that she was even aware that he was attracted to her at all, far less to the extent that he actually was.

She was a cryptic, complex creature.

"Well, not to worry!" she said, as cheerfully as ever. "If you don't want your share of the pudding, I can put it in the fridge and eat it myself tomorrow! Waste not want not!"

She skipped back into the room out of his sight and he was able to relax a little. When she kept her mouth shut he could justify his attraction to her: she was remarkably pretty after all. Unfortunately, when she did open her mouth, he was reminded of every reason why he ought to stay as far away from her as possible. With her out of sight, and her scent gone with her, the only proof that she was still nearby was the sound of her humming that annoying tune, and Hiei was finding it easier to focus. He would stay long enough to eat the meal – because there was little point in turning down a free meal – and then he would ask her why she loved him, and then he could just leave and never have to see the blue-haired menace ever again.

After all, he had gone a long time without seeing her before that mentally deficient infant had sent the ferry girl to demon world to order Hiei to join their little mission to find that stupid device. If all went according to plan, after the end of the demon world tournament, Hiei would not see the girl for another three years, when the next tournament came around. And even that was too soon.

"Hello there!" he heard her say. "Oh, that's lovely! Can we keep this trolley until we finish our meal? That would be just tickety-boo!"

Hiei growled into the palm of one hand, silently glad that none of his peers on Mukuro's army could see him now.

"And we're charging all of this to the room, yes?" she said.

"Sure," Hiei heard a male voice reply. "But you still owe me a gratuity."

"A gratuity?" the woman repeated.

Hiei's back straightened and his eyes widened: unlike the dippy, do-gooder ferry girl, he knew exactly where this conversation was leading.

"If you don't have any money, that's not a problem," the voice continued. "I'm sure a pretty girl like you can think of another way to show your gratitude."

Hiei started to move but stopped short, almost choking on his own breath as he heard the woman's answer.

"Oh yes of course!" she said. "I see you have a lovely big cob there, why don't you give it a good old dipping in my honey-pot?"

Hiei dropped ungracefully to the balcony floor. His nose started to bleed: he was unsure if it was from an impact he had not felt or the result of an aneurism inflicted by suffering the woman's complete and utter idiocy.

"Go on!" she said. "Stick it right in there and swirl it about a bit!"

Hiei dragged his sleeve along his nose to clear the blood. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to clear his head.

"Now give it a lick," she said. "Go on, you'll love it!"

Hiei could not stand to listen any longer. He got to his feet and darted back into the room, stopping abruptly at the woman's side, his face contorting as he saw a curious lizard demon withdrawing a cob of corn from a glass pot of honey.

"Go on, it's just super yummy!" the woman encouraged him.

He eyed her over sceptically before taking a bite out of the food, his face moving through a range of expressions as he chewed.

"That's not bad," he concluded, before swallowing. "I never would have thought of putting honey on grilled corn."

"Isn't it just super dooper?" the woman said, smiling like an idiot.

Her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped by her face. The lizard in front of her frowned at her briefly before leaning down to Hiei, lifting up one hand in front of his mouth.

"I thought she was asking me to stick it to her," he whispered. "I've never meant a woman that forward before. But then it turns out she's actually talking literally!"

Hiei gave the lizard a mildly sympathetic look. The ferry girl's frankness was one of the biggest problems he himself had with her. Usually he appreciated people who were direct and honest in their speech, but sometimes the girl was just a little bit too straightforward for his sanity.

"Well you have a good night," the lizard bid them, bowing his head to each of them.

"You too!" the woman said cheerfully. "And if you need another taste of my honey, just give me a bang on the door!"

The lizard gave Hiei one last look of confused despair before hurrying from their sight. The woman watched him go before closing the door again and turning to Hiei with an endless smile.

"What a lovely young man he was!" she said.

"You're an idiot," Hiei frankly told her.

"Hiei, that's very rude!" she scolded him, waving a finger at him as though she thought he cared.

Hiei turned to the trolley of food the lizard had left for them, slapping aside the cloth hanging down the sides of it to reveal the selection of glass bottles concealed beneath. He quickly selected the most potently alcoholic drink he could lay his hands on, prising off the lid with his teeth and gulping down a substantial amount of the contents before slowly releasing a sigh.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Botan leaned out of the doorway, watching the lizard demon walk away. He seemed to be leaving in an awful hurry, she thought to herself, but he did seem to be enjoying his honey-dipped corn.

"What a lovely young man he was!" she said as she leaned back into the room and closed the door.

"You're an idiot," Hiei answered her.

"Hiei, that's very rude!" she snapped back, waving a finger at him.

He made a small noise before diving at the trolley of food, searching clumsily for something hidden beneath the cloth draped over the top shelf. He eventually uncovered a medium-sized glass bottle, and she winced as he bit off the bottle-cap, spitting it out and then drinking eagerly from the contents. She thought about telling him that she could have made him a drink if she had known he was so thirsty, but as he sighed out a breath of air, her eyes blurred over and she let out a small cough: apparently the bottle had contained raw alcohol, as the fumes coming from his breath were almost enough to strip the enamel from her teeth.

"Well, let's see what the house special is, shall we?" she said, trying to keep a smile on her face as Hiei took another swig from his bottle.

He was already sweating and it looked like he had a small amount of blood smeared over one side of his face: though she could not see any injuries the blood could have come from, so she dismissed it. She lifted the lid off the first serving dish, staggering back a step as she was overwhelmed by the odour of spoiled milk and rotten fish. She clapped a hand over her mouth and nose, squinting down at the steaming green scaly object on the plate.

"Alrighty…" she said slowly, placing the lid down by the plate.

She then moved onto the next dish, lifting the lid and barely managing to cough and swallow down a mouthful of bile as she found herself looking at what looked like a pair of legs from a giant insect, boiled and smothered in peanut butter and olive oil. The only thing more repulsive than the sight and smell of the food before her was the wide-eyed look on Hiei's face as he practically drooled over the trolley. His red eyes flicked up to meet hers with an almost pleading look. She shook her head, stepped back from the trolley and waved a hand for him to continue.

"Please, be my guest," she insisted.

He nodded, grabbing up one of the sticky insect legs. He darted out of the room like a dog that had just stolen a morsel from his master's plate, which only made the situation even more ridiculous. Botan hurried after him, finding him perched on the corner of the railings again, eagerly munching his way into the flesh of whatever manner of creature the leg had once been a part of. She swallowed hard when she saw that the meat was pink raw in the middle, silently reminding herself that demons had different tastes to humans, and that this was obviously why she had never seen Hiei eat anything in the living world: why would be want braised pork with sweet mango sauce when he preferred raw and sticky bug thigh meat?

"Hiei?" she said through her hand, which was still clamped over her mouth and nose. "Come and eat with me."

He paused, watching her curiously. She pointed at the blankets she had laid out on the balcony, which he seemed oddly suspicious of. She moved back into the room and collected the trolley, pushing it out onto the balcony, keeping one hand over her mouth and nose all the way. She then moved the trays of food onto the makeshift picnic blanket, arranging them as nicely as she could considering that she was only using one hand and she was continually choking back bile and blinking back tears from the sting of the conflicting aromas in her nostrils.

"I thought we could eat _al fresco_ ," she said, waving her free hand over the plates.

Hiei slowly chewed through the mouthful of food he was holding. It occurred to Botan then that he probably did not know what the term _al fresco_ meant.

"I thought we could eat the meal out here," she explained, pointing at the blanket. "Like a picnic."

Hiei slid from the railings, landing on the balcony floor with a soft thud. His eyes were constantly flicking between the blankets and Botan, and he slowly crept towards her. Taking this to be his acceptance of her offer, she sat down on one side of the blanket, eying over her choices of food. Apart from the platter of bug legs and the platter of green slime – which actually appeared to be some sort of eel or miniature dragon – there was a smaller plate of hard, crusty black beetles and a plate of something that could have been thick, textured noodles, but could just as easily have been worms. Resigning herself to the fact that she had made a huge error in judgement, Botan dragged the pudding dish over to her side of the blanket and opened it up. She inhaled deeply to check the flavour, and promptly regretted her decision.

"You should have stayed with the others tonight," Hiei commented casually as he sat down opposite her. "You would have been given a choice of meals more palatable to your human tastes."

Botan looked up at him forlornly and to her surprise his face actually twitched slightly as though he momentarily felt sorry for her.

"It's alright, I don't mind," she lied. "What flavour is this pudding anyway? It smells like rotten eggs."

"Probably fish liver."

Botan groaned, turning her face away in disgust.

"Why would anyone make pudding that flavour?" she grumbled, more to herself than Hiei.

"Pudding in demon world is not the same as it is in the human world," Hiei replied regardless. "It's not a sweet dish here."

"Oh."

Botan hung her head in disappointment, before turning to the trolley and reaching in under the cloth to search through the selection of bottles there. She eventually chose one with a picture of cartoon cherries on it, in the hope that it was a kind of fruit juice that would at least be slightly nourishing.

"Are you sure you want that?" Hiei asked her as she began trying to prise off the lid.

"Is it good?" she asked him.

"It's very sweet," he replied. "It's also deceptively potent."

Botan paused, mid-tug, slowly thinning her eyes. Now she was even more confused: was Hiei talking about the drink or was he talking about something else? His tone changed slightly when he was talking about sweet things, and she was starting to think that everything they had spoken about over the past few nights had been more riddles and metaphors for something else rather than small talk about taste preferences.

"I just chose it because it looked cute," she said slowly, watching Hiei carefully for his reaction.

"Hn, that's not a good reason to choose anything," he replied, smirking slightly. "You should always read the label carefully before you take a taste."

"I've already read the label, but I don't think that it's fair to judge based on something somebody else has written," she said, tugging at the lid again. "I prefer to make my own mind up."

"That's surprisingly reckless for a woman of your position," he said, leaning towards her slightly as he spoke. "I'm not sure Koenma would be happy to know that you don't heed a valid warning about the danger of something."

Botan finally dislodged the bottle cap with a small pop. She kept her eyes on Hiei as she sniffed at the contents of the bottle, feeling a little confused again as she realised that the drink within did in fact smell both sweet and quite breathtakingly alcoholic.

"I'm sure Lord Koenma wouldn't mind me doing something if I enjoyed it," she said, trying to keep her words as ambiguous as possible.

"Hn."

Hiei lifted up his own, half-empty bottle and took a drink before continuing.

"Are you sure about that, ferry girl?" he asked.

Botan tensed a little: the reek of alcohol on his breath was actually strong enough to mask the stench of the food laid out between them.

"If you think your Lord Koenma won't mind you doing it, why do you never do it in front of him?"

For a brief moment, every part of Botan's mind and body paused. She stopped breathing, she stopped blinking and her mind went silent. The moment ended when a small voice in her head told her that the conversation she was having with Hiei was clearly no longer about drinks, and that it possibly never had been, even the night before.

"I've never done it in front of Lord Koenma, that's true," she said slowly. "But not because I think he'll mind or because I'm ashamed."

She deliberately used the word "ashamed" because that was the word he had used when she had pushed him off of her the day Puu had dropped in on them kissing. This, she decided, would let her know for sure if he was actually just using the drinks as an excuse to talk about their relationship in a roundabout, metaphorical manner.

"But even though I've never done it in front of him," she continued, studying Hiei carefully for his reaction as she spoke. "He knows about my preferences in that area."

"Hn," Hiei grunted. "He may know about your unusual tastes, but he doesn't understand them. Nor does he sympathise or welcome them. It's not befitting for Koenma's favourite ferry girl to like such potent things."

"Maybe not, but it's hardly befitting for Mukuro's top man to like such sweet and creamy things," Botan bit back.

Hiei's eyebrows flickered slightly as she said the word "creamy" and she took this as an indication that he now knew that she understood the rules of his little game, even if she was yet to figure out why he was playing it.

"My preference is just a passing addiction," he said firmly. "Yours is rather more persistent."

"I disagree," she tightly replied. "I don't need to taste it every night, but clearly you do, because you're the one who keeps coming back here for more!"

"I'm not disillusioned about my problem," he growled, throwing down his food with a splat. "But clearly you are confused about yours."

"I understand my problem perfectly!" she snapped back. "What I don't understand is your problem! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Your problem doesn't make any sense to me!"

"Well then mister sticky lips, maybe you should explain yourself!"

Hiei's eyes suddenly doubled in size and he moved back from the blanket a little.

""Mister sticky lips"?" he repeated quietly.

Botan sighed impatiently, grabbing a napkin from the trolley and lifting herself up onto her knees to lean over the blanket of food towards him.

"You got more of that stuff on your mouth than you did in your mouth, Hiei!" she said, grabbing the underside of his chin in one hand and wiping the napkin at his mouth with the other.

She was surprised that he held still and let her finish her task, but she could feel that he was almost painfully tense, and she wondered if he was frozen in shock as much as complying to her offer of assistance: he certainly looked quite horrified as she finally released him. As she sat back onto her ankles he angrily wiped the heel of his bandaged hand against the corners of his mouth before finishing his drink and tossing the bottle over the railings.

"Oh Hiei, it's very rude to drop litter like that," she pointed out. "And from this height, too! Don't you know that if you drop something as small as a coin from the top of a high building it can kill someone on ground level?"

"I don't care about that," he flatly replied.

"Oh Hiei!"

His lips quivered and he bunched his fists into either side of the blankets. Botan started to adopt a curious look as she saw his knuckles whiten, but her face quickly changed as he violently yanked the blankets, food and all, to one side, some of the items slipping through the bars of the railings, the others clattering noisily against them.

"Oh! Hiei!" she yelped, eying him over in confusion and mild fear.

His eyes were suddenly large with a look she had rarely seen in them, and it was one she was not too sure that she wanted to see again.

"Why don't you come over here and I'll give you a reason to say "oh Hiei"…" he growled.

Botan tried to move backwards away from him, her back thumping against the struts of the railings and her legs bunching up awkwardly in front of her. The sight of Hiei crawling towards her painfully slowly, his eyes gleaming and his grin wide was both terrifying and exhilarating: she wanted him to touch her again, but she did not want to hear him say those horrible three words he had that night on the beach.

Torn between want and fear, Botan tensed every muscle in her body and braced herself for the worst whilst silently praying for the best.

* * *

Hiei grinned to himself as the woman clattered against the railings, delighting in the distinct blend of fear, curiosity and desire flickering in her large eyes. He had failed three nights in a row now to ask her why she thought that she loved him, and he decided that he might as well give up on that quest. Instead, he would just have his way with her, right there on the balcony of her hotel room that was right next to Koenma's and diagonally beneath Kurama's. If he was really lucky, he thought, one of those bastards might actually catch them in the act.

He took his time crawling across the balcony, enjoying the way her muddled expressions became more extreme as the gap between them narrowed. She smelled especially good that night, which refuted his belief that she acquired that light and sweet scent from flying over meadows and through forests. She had spent the last few days fully emerged in the stench of decay and rot that permanently hung in the air in demon world and yet somehow she still smelt like grass, lavender and sweet berries. It was both infuriating and intoxicating, mostly because she was completely oblivious that she had that affect on him.

She whimpered as his first hand reached her, grabbing a handful of her kimono by her thigh. She sounded afraid, but at the contact he distinctly saw her shoulders relax. He reached forwards with his other hand, grabbing a handful material by her hip, pulling himself over her. Her eyebrows pushed together and she made another pitiful noise like a frightened animal, but despite what her mind apparently thought, her body betrayed her as her chin distinctly lifted, bringing her parted and quivering lips dangerously close to his. It took Hiei a great strain of will power not to dip his head slightly and close that gap between them: he wanted to kiss those soft and sweet lips again, but not just yet. If he achieved nothing else that night, he was at least going to make her understand what she did to him with her teasing touches and cautious caresses.

Angling his face away from hers, Hiei lowered his head to her neck, inhaling deeply at that unmistakable scent of sweetness, cleanliness and goodness that was the ferry girl. She moaned quietly in his ear before sighing out a short gasp, her breath teasing through his hair around his ear. The urge to pull his hands violently outwards, ripping her clothing from her body, was overwhelming but Hiei fought it back, shifting his head slightly to drag his tongue up the length of her throat. Her skin tasted even better than it smelt, and his lips twitched painfully as her soft skin brushed against them. He wanted to open his mouth wider and just take a bite out of her, every instinct telling him he could devour her right where she lay; but still Hiei held back.

Pushing his face into her collarbone and pressing his lips to her skin, he began sliding his hands up the sides of her body. He had an idea about flattening her to the ground and completely taking over, but as his hands left her legs she did something completely unexpected that made him momentarily cease moving in shock: she lifted one leg and hooked it over the back of his knees, making a small groan that made her throat vibrate against his lips. It was a surprisingly bold move on her part, but Hiei eventually decided that she did not realise what she was doing or what effect it was likely to have on him. She had demonstrated time and again that she was beyond ridiculously naïve, and surely this was just another little blunder.

But it did feel quite nice.

Hiei began trailing kisses up one side of her neck. She turned her head away from him a little but at the same time exposed more of her throat to his lips: it was something he had noticed her do before, an action he could never decide on the true intentions behind. Was she turning away because she was so shy or was she wilfully submitting to his touch and begging for more? With any other female it would have been obvious, but with this ferry girl Hiei could never tell. For such a loud, open and simplistic creature she held a surprising amount of mystery about her. Even when he felt her hands in his hair he was confused: the last time she had teased him by massaging her fingers about his scalp she had been merely trying to retrieve her whistle. This time she had no such motivation for her actions, but still Hiei felt a little confused and wary.

Especially so when he distinctly felt her tugging at his hair. The last time she had done that she had stabbed him in the jagan with a splinter and started lecturing him on respect and love.

He grunted, relaxing a little into her hands, realising then that she was in fact trying to pull him away from what he was doing. He let her have her way briefly, if only to see what her intentions were, his breath catching in his throat when she brought her lips up to his and then began pulling him down towards her. It was not exactly what he had been expecting, but it was certainly a good thing, so he did not complain. Instead he firmly grabbed his hands around her wrists and pulled her hands from his hair, pushing her arms back against the railings and pinning her firmly in place in an attempt to gain some control over the situation again. To his surprise, when her arms touched the metal bars her back arched and her body was suddenly pressed flush against his.

Hiei had tried. He really had. He had used immense will power and amazing self-restraint, but after years of watching and wanting, to get this close, to have her body pressed against him, to have her lying beneath him this willing, was simply too much. He lifted his head, pulling his lips from hers, only feeling more certain of his decision when she moaned at the loss of contact and gazed up at him longingly with eyes darkened by lust.

"Fuck this," he muttered, releasing her wrists to grab his hands into her obi.

He slid down against her, groaning a little himself as her leg moved up the back of his legs upon his action. He stopped as his face came level with the bulky obi she wore around her body, his mouth opening slightly and his fingers reaffirming their grip at her sides. He had started out with the idea of tearing her entire outfit apart with his fingers and his teeth, but once he got himself into a position to follow through with his idea, he suddenly found himself unable to continue.

"Hiei…" she said softly, once more stroking her fingers into his hair.

He let his eyes meet hers and when she blushed a little and gave him a shy little smile he felt his carnal instincts subsiding. It was such a confusing feeling, he was sitting back on his heels before he even realised that he had let her go. In all his life, Hiei had never felt his desire to be with a woman physically lessen, least of all when the woman he desired was sprawled before him and virtually offering herself to him.

He wondered if he was sick.

"You're so cute when you're confused," he heard the woman say through a giggle.

He may have answered her with a curse of some kind, but his brain was too busy processing what had just happened to care what sort of noises his mouth might be making. His eyes wandered to his side, looking down at the streets far below the hotel. There was a riot somewhere nearby, the distant sound of windows being smashed and crude fist-fights taking place. It was fairly common for such things to happen in any part of demon world and at any time, but especially so at the time of the tournament and in such a commercial district. Hiei had often been a part of such raids himself in his younger days, and they had always made him smile, whether he was the instigator or just a bystander watching on.

But, as though to further remind him that he was apparently losing his sanity, that night the noise was both angering and worrying him. Something as strong as the lust he had been consumed by moments earlier was starting to tell him that this hotel was no sort of place for that fragile ferry girl to be staying in. What if she got caught in one of those raids? Anything could happen to her!

But why the hell did he even care about that?

"Well mister hot and cold, two can play that game!"

Hiei cried out as the woman suddenly dived at him. He landed on his back, his sword clattering against the balcony floor at his side, but before he could even recover his sense of dignity, the woman had flattened herself against him and grabbed her hands into his scarf, tightening it around his neck and effectively locking his head in place. He met her eyes for a brief instant before she swooped down on him, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. He tensed, torn between shock and anger at her actions, crossing his eyes to watch her as she opened her lips slightly and gently smoothed her tongue over his lip.

Apparently he was not the only one who had lost his mind that night.

The taste of her on his lip soon stirred up his desire to take her again, and he grabbed his arms around her waist, pushing her down onto her back and positioning himself on top of her. She almost looked like she was smiling against his mouth, but he would soon fix that, he told himself. He quickly encased her lips in his, once more holding himself back as best he could as he started to kiss her. It was his instinct to kiss her hard and fast, but that was not how she kissed him, and he wanted her to feel the same way that he did when she kissed him, so he kept his movements slow and gentle, compensating for the lack of pressure in his lips by gripping his hands into her clothing until he heard stitching creaking and plucking loose.

A gust of wind swept over them as they lay locked together, and for a brief moment Hiei's senses were robbed of her sweet scent as the wind brought up the stench of the streets below. It was the smell of home for Hiei, but it felt wrong somehow having that smell around the woman. He reluctantly pulled his lips from hers, only to almost drop back down again when she moaned at the loss of contact.

"It's too cold out here for you," he said, deciding to choose a lie that she was likely to believe. "Get inside."

He got to his feet and stood by the door, watching her expectantly. She looked up at him in a momentary daze before smiling (did she ever do anything else?) and pushing herself to her feet. As she walked passed him she tugged and tucked at her clothing, once more covering any small margins of skin he had managed to expose, before moving her hands to her head, smoothing back her hair where it had come loose from its ties.

Was she trying to piss him off?

Hiei sighed angrily, stomping in after her and roughly pulling the door closed. He locked it into place and yanked the curtain shut before moving over to lock the room door. He was not really sure why he had bothered secluding himself into the room with the woman, but an instinct was telling him to complete the actions, and it was an instinct he had long ago learned to trust. When he turned around again he found the woman still standing by the balcony doors, chewing at her lip and fidgeting nervously. Clearly her actions earlier had just been a lapse in judgement, because now that she had him in her room she was floundering.

One part of Hiei told him to just cross the room and finish what they had been starting out on the balcony and another part of him told him to unlock the door and get as far away from the whole building as he possibly could. His mind could not decide between the two, and during his indecision, his entire body refused to move in either direction, leaving him pinned on the spot, feeling as wary as the woman looked.

* * *

Botan stiffened when she heard the lock clicking into place. She spun around in time to see Hiei yank the curtain closed over the balcony doors before darting across the room to the main door. Her first thought was that he was about to run away again, and she was not entirely surprised, only a little disappointed. She would miss him, but at the same time she was terrified of the night turning into a repeat of what had happened on Valentine's Day; though that was silly, she told herself, since she had just – literally – thrown herself at him, and really could not expect any other outcome from her actions.

Botan almost fainted in shock when Hiei locked the room door. When he turned around to face her again she had to blink several times to be sure that she was not hallucinating: he had actually just locked himself into a medium-sized hotel room with her, as unusual as that seemed.

He looked angry. Or confused. Or perhaps a little of both. Botan wished that for even just one minute she could understand what was going through his head. When the moment continued to drag on in a tense and awkward silence Botan eventually found the courage to speak.

"Hiei, are you alright?" she asked.

"Fine," he growled, snapping the light-switch off.

Botan's eyes widened, partly in shock and partly to compensate for the lack of light in the room. Before her eyes could fully adjust to the darkness she heard Hiei move and instinct took over: no matter how much she had come to adore him, Botan still had a healthy fear of Hiei, and she yelped, starting in the direction of the bathroom with the intention of locking herself in there alone. She made it more than halfway to her goal before Hiei collided with her, knocking her off her feet.

Somehow she landed on her side on the bed. Hiei quickly moved her onto her back and positioned himself on top of her, pinning her arms down at her sides and leaning over her. He hesitated above her long enough for her to notice that his breath still reeked of alcohol before slowly touching his lips to hers, in what had to be the gentlest kiss he had ever given her. She was unsure if this was what the alcohol had done to him or if something had changed, if he had somehow finally realised that this was what she wanted.

In fact, she thought as her breathing began to become more laboured, this was even better than what she had imagined or hoped for: this was perfect. It was as though he had suddenly become the perfect kisser, and the rush of feeling in her chest and the lightness in her head almost made her feel like she was flying without her oar. His lips were soft but firm as they massaged hers, his tongue slowly working its way deeper into her mouth. He had complete control over her in that moment, but she felt happy knowing that, and she trusted him to guide her next movements.

Botan felt the pressure release from one of her arms and she opened her eyes slightly to watch as Hiei grabbed a hand at the lamp on the bedside table. He switched it on and then broke their kiss, lifting his head a little to look down at her. She smiled at him in the hope of conveying that she was happy with what was happening, but to her surprise his scowled back at her and switched the light off again. She started to frown in confusion but soon forgot the oddity in his behaviour as hot lips began gently sucking on hers. She gently kissed back, letting her eyes drift shut again: but the bliss of the body rush was brief when she heard a click and the light appeared to come on again.

Botan opened her eyes, looking up at Hiei, who was still barely touching his lips to hers. Their eyes met and she saw his thin before they disappeared as he switched the light out again. She groaned involuntarily in frustration, but she was prevented from making any further complaints as Hiei took her lips in his again. She moved her freed arm around his neck, pushing her fingers into his hair and trying to hold his head down to make sure that he maintained contact. She could not fathom why he kept switching on the light and breaking away from her, but she was not going to allow it to happen again.

But apparently Hiei had other ideas, as seconds later he switched the light on again and she felt him try to pull away. His strength soon overpowered the hold she had on him and he lifted his head from her, looking down at her with a look that was indescribable.

"Hiei?" she said. "Are you okay?"

He gave a small growl before lowering himself onto her again, burying his face in her shoulder and turning out the light again. He moved his arms around her waist, holding her close to him, and lay very still, breathing heavily.

Well this was odd.

* * *

"Hiei? Are you okay?"

Hiei growled and dropped his face into the woman's neck. He turned out the light again, realising that it was hopeless. Obviously there was something wrong with him. He could not decide if it was a mental or a physical problem, but whatever it was, it was clearly something terrible. He wanted the damn light on because he wanted her to see him and he wanted to see her. He wanted her to see that he was the one making her feel that way and he wanted to see her face when he finally succeeded in making her scream out her satisfaction. But some infinitely sick part of his mind was thinking something bizarre and numbing his body and his urges every time he saw her lying there beneath him.

In the dark, and with his eyes closed, Hiei could pretend that she was someone else, and it was easy. But he did not want to pretend that she was someone else, because that was the whole point of capturing this one woman: she was the one he wanted – above all others, apparently – and he wanted to enjoy finally having her.

As he lay pressed against her, breathing her in, he could feel something. It was definitely a feeling, in much the same way that anger was a feeling. It was as intense and manipulative of his actions as his anger was when someone underestimated him. That always sent him into a blind fury, and this new feeling was just as bad. He could satisfy fury with blood, but he had no idea what he needed to do to stop this new, unknown emotion.

But although it was an unusual feeling, as it worsened in intensity, he realised that it was not actually a new one after all. Hiei's breathing started to stabilise then as his mind started to rationalise and he began to realise that he had felt this way before. He had felt this way more than once. He had felt this way many times, in fact.

It was the same weird feeling he got when Yukina was in danger.

Hiei stiffened. Was Yukina in danger? Maybe that was the problem. Maybe that was why he could not concentrate on his own sexual urges. He almost smiled then in relief that the problem was not him. After all, the day he was unable to just take a woman he wanted because of some feeling was the day he would have to turn his own blade towards his own throat.

Hiei carefully slid one hand from around the woman's back and pushed his bandana up into his hair, opening his jagan. He closed his own eyes and let his third eye do what was needed. He hoped that Yukina was not in any sort of life-threatening situation as she was so far away from where he was right then, but he definitely had a sense that something was amiss, and the feeling accompanying it was that feeling that had consumed him the day he had found his sister battered and abused and locked in a tower at the hands of that bastard Tarukane.

Finally Hiei's jagan eye found what it sought: Yukina was lying in a bed in the old lady's temple. She was asleep, and she looked quite content, which made no sense whatsoever. Hiei was both overcome with relief and racked with fear. If there was nothing wrong with Yukina then that could only mean that he was the one with the problem after all. He tried seeking out the spirit-sword wielding, orange-haired idiot to make sure that he had not done something stupid to Yukina, and soon regretted that decision when he found him many miles away from Yukina, sleeping with no covers over him and dressed in only a baggy pair of boxers that failed to cover what they ought to.

Hiei angrily tugged his bandana down over his jagan eye again, opening his own eyes once more. The woman moaned at his side and his eyes moved to her face, his irritated sneer faltering slightly when he saw that she was almost as deeply asleep as Yukina had been. She had fallen asleep unreasonably quickly, he thought, but he supposed that was partly because he was laid on top of her, and he knew that the heat of his body often made others feel relaxed and sleepy at such close contact.

Hiei's face began to contort as he began to feel something else strange. The thought of his own body heat putting the woman to sleep was making him feel something that made his chest buzz. What was that all about? And if his first unusual feeling had not been because of Yukina, it must have somehow been because of the woman lying beneath him.

Well that was completely messed up: how was it possible to feel the same way about his sister as he did about a woman he just wanted to fuck?

Hiei sighed in frustration. He was confused, his head and his body were betraying him at every turn, the woman was asleep and so he could hardly continue taking her – there was no fun in having his way with her if she was not even awake to remember it – and he was so ridiculously tangled up in her that it was going to be impossible to leave without waking her.

But if he woke her, he could finish what he had started.

More strange feelings assaulted Hiei at the thought of abruptly awakening the woman: and one of them was familiar.

Guilt.

Hiei closed his eyes and nuzzled into her neck, wrapping his arm around her again. Since he could not decide what to do, he might as well just relax there for a while. It was not unpleasant, after all, to hold her close like that and enjoy the smell of her. Obviously he would only stay that way for a few minutes, because it would be pretty pathetic otherwise.

* * *

"Botan!"

Botan groaned and twitched slightly. Her body felt tight and her movements restricted, but she felt fantastically warm and somehow strangely at ease, as though something more powerful than her was watching over her.

"Botan, open this door!"

She groaned again at the sound of a fist banging against a door.

"Botan, if you don't open this door immediately, I'm coming in there! I have a spare key and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Botan was suddenly wide awake. Several things hit her at once, each one progressively more disturbing than the last: Koenma was banging on the door of her room and threatening to just walk in at any minute, she was still lying in her bed and from the thin shafts of sunlight escaping from gaps in the curtains over the balcony doors it was clearly past dawn, the entire room stank of strong alcohol and rancid boiled meat, she had apparently slept fully clothed and she was not alone in her bed.

"Botan, I am going to count to ten, and if you haven't opened this door by then I'm coming in! I don't care if you're asleep, in the shower or naked, I am coming in!"

Botan slowly moved her eyes to the large eyes looking down at her. She did not really need to see those eyes to know who was laid next to her, but she still jolted in shock as she received visual confirmation that Hiei was lying in her bed, mostly on top of her and mostly clinging onto her. Her mind could only focus on the fact that the room reeked of alcohol and she was in bed with Hiei, and she began to fear the worst.

But then she remembered that she was still fully clothed. And so was Hiei. He even had his coat and his boots on and his sword was still hanging at his hip.

"One!" Koenma's voice yelled through the door. "Two!"

The room stunk of alcohol, she was in bed with Hiei and Lord Koenma was about to enter the room.

"Oh dear…" she muttered.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Koenma forces his way into Botan's room and isn't happy with what he finds, Kurama has something important to say to Botan and Hiei is still at war with his own "feelings". **Chapter 27: The Disappointment**


	27. The Disappointment

**A/N:** … **And everyone get ready to hate me again!**

* * *

 **Chapter 27: The Disappointment**

"Three!"

Botan gulped loudly. If she told Hiei to leave it would be just as bad as the time she had shoved him away when Puu had caught them kissing by the edge of the forest.

"Four!"

And if she let Koenma come into the room and catch her tangled up in Hiei in her bed, there would be no denying that he was the reason she had burst into tears a few days ago in her boss's office.

"Five!"

Hiei looked as confused and immobile as she was, and that was doing little to help the situation.

"Six!"

"Sir, are you sure you should be forcing your way into Miss Botan's room like this?"

"Shut-up ogre! Seven!"

"What is all this noise about?"

Botan felt Hiei twitch slightly at the sound of Kurama's voice outside the door. He blinked a few times, clarity returning to his previously hazed over eyes.

"Look at this bill!" Koenma cried.

"Yes, I see," Kurama immediately replied, clearly having not done what Koenma had asked of him. "But perhaps you should consider that there are other guests in this hotel, and most of them do not wish to be awoken by the ranting of a rambunctious teenage boy."

"This is between me and Botan! Eight!"

Botan tensed as Hiei lowered his head and she felt his breath against her neck.

"We can't let them see us like this," he whispered into her ear.

She could not tell him how relieved she was that he had been the one to voice that opinion instead of her. He began pulling his arms from her and as he lifted his body away she shivered involuntarily at the loss of heat. He was so hot, it had been wonderful having him so close to her for so long. He paused long enough to give her what seemed to be a sneer of disgust before dashing over to the balcony doors and quietly pulling back the curtains.

"Nine!"

Hiei quickly unlocked the door and slid it open.

"Ten!"

Hiei slipped outside.

"Right, that does it, I'm coming in!"

Hiei closed the door behind himself before leaping over the railings and falling out of sight. Botan sighed, sad that he had gone but cheered to know that his visits had become a routine, and he ought to be back again that night.

"Botan!"

She screamed, sitting up abruptly and turning to the door as Koenma stumbled through it.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, holding up a crumpled piece of paper in the air. "First of all, the bill for your room service order is completely extortionate! You could play cards every night for a year and never win this much money! This is coming out of your pay, Botan!"

"You don't pay us, Sir," George reminded him from the doorway.

"And secondly, why are there complaints about you throwing silverware off your balcony?" Koenma continued, ignoring George's aside.

Botan did not answer him, but she did not need to as he stomped across the room, dragging open the balcony door and stepping outside. A brief idea that Hiei might still be visible somewhere outside sent Botan into a panic and she leapt from her bed, hurrying out to join her boss on the balcony.

"What in the three worlds happened out here?" he asked in a low voice, holding out his hands towards the mess on the ground.

Botan peered down at the rumpled blankets, stained with fish liver pudding, smeared with insect leg steak sauce and decorated with worm noodles before slowly lifting her eyes to Koenma's.

"Um…" she said.

""Um"?" he yelled, causing her to shirk back from him. ""Um"? Is that all you've got to say for yourself? "Um"? Is "um" going to pay this bill? Is "um" going to repair the damage your fork did to the concierge's spine?"

Botan tried to pull a cat face, but she was not sure that it worked, since Koenma only seemed to look angrier.

"And what is that smell?" he demanded, sniffing at the air around him. "It smells like wasted food, demon-strength alcohol and cinders in here."

"Cinders?" Botan yelped.

Koenma slowly dragged his eyes over Botan.

"I think I know what happened in here last night," he said quietly.

"Y-you do?" she asked nervously.

Actually, she was still unsure exactly what had happened herself, so she decided that hearing her boss's theory might be educational.

"Yes, I know exactly what happened in here, Botan," he said again.

George and Kurama stepped out onto the balcony, the former looking down at the congealing food forlornly and the latter casually surveying the scene with the air of someone who knew far more than he would ever say out loud.

"You got drunk and burned incense in this room!" Koenma said suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at Botan.

"I-I…"

Botan did not know what to say, but at least Koenma's accusation was far better than the reality of the situation.

"I don't know what has gotten into you lately, Botan!" he continued. "Did you sleep in your clothes? And what did you do with your food? You've got sticky sauce all over your neck!"

Botan grabbed a hand around her throat, her eyes growing wide when she felt that the skin there was quite tacky to the touch, and she did not need to think long to remember why that was: her brain slowly replayed the sight of her own hands trying to wipe the sticky sauce from Hiei's face and him then crawling towards her and licking and kissing his way up her neck. The memory sent a rush of longing through Botan that started in her stomach and spread upwards and, worryingly, spread downwards. She blinked slowly and sucked in her bottom lip to chew at it, her eyes looking first at the still enraged Koenma before moving to the face at his shoulder.

Botan froze.

Kurama's eyes were thinned slightly, his etched red eyebrows drawn together into a curious frown and his nose clearly twitching at the air: could he somehow smell what she had just been thinking about?

"Gracious Botan, it's like being in demon world is turning you into a demon!" Koenma said, shaking his head. "You should be careful burning incense you know. Some of them produce a smoke that can act like a drug on you!"

Botan opened her mouth but words failed her. Even though she was looking at Koenma, she could still see Kurama scrutinising her on the periphery of her vision.

"And this alcohol is very strong!" Koenma added, picking up an empty bottle.

Botan started as she saw that it was the same bottle she had opened herself and intended to drink the night before. It was empty, but it looked as though it had simply spilled out onto the balcony after Hiei had pounced at her.

"Something this flammable should not be kept near naked flames!"

Botan almost laughed. She hurriedly moved her other hand over her mouth to hide the quivering smirk playing across her lips. Koenma's words had almost sounded like an analogy: her nerves were too flammable to be safe around a naked Hiei, she thought to herself.

"Playing with naked flames can often burn badly," Kurama commented.

Botan met his eyes and her hands slid from her mouth and neck. She was no longer amused.

"I think Botan might have become rather intoxicated last night on something quite potent," he continued, moving his eyes to Koenma as he spoke. "If you take care of the bill, I will do what I can to help Botan come to her senses."

Koenma nodded.

"Yes, very well, Kurama," he said with a sigh. "Ogre, I'm taking a note of your part in this mess."

"Me?" George squeaked. "But Sir, I'm innocent!"

"You'll be working over-time to make this money back up to me, ogre."

"But you don't pay me! And I work over-time everyday already!"

Koenma and George left the room, the door banging shut behind them. Botan tried to smile at Kurama in the hope that he would be sympathetic, and to her relief he did not look as stern as he had sounded when he had last spoken.

"I don't think I even need to ask what happened here last night," he said. "It seems rather obvious. In fact, I'm not even going to mention it ever again–"

"That would be super."

"–after I've said just one thing on the matter."

"Oh…"

"I have noticed that you've grown increasingly attached to Hiei since our last assignment. I'm not sure which came first: your liking for him, or your decision to use The Stolen Moment for his benefit, but I know that it has been since that time that things have been different between the two of you. I think I know you both well enough to advise caution, however. Botan, if you pursue a relationship with Hiei, quite apart from the fact that neither your superiors in spirit world nor Hiei's superiors here in demon world are likely to give you their approval, you will get more than you bargain for, and I'm not sure that it would be wise for a gentle heart like yours to venture into something so intense."

Botan slowly nodded.

"You're telling me to back off," she said.

Kurama gave her a small smile.

"If you wish to be so blunt then yes, that is exactly what I'm telling you," he replied.

"I see," she said, feeling a sudden urge to cry. "I suppose I'm not good enough, is that it?"

Kurama's eyebrows shot up before twisting into an uneven frown. It was unusual to see any extreme expressions on his face and particularly so to see two immediately together.

"You have misunderstood me," he said gently. "This is not a matter of worthiness it is a matter of incompatibility."

Botan pouted at him sulkily.

"That's just sounds like a polite way of saying that I'm not good enough for Hiei, mister fancy words!" she moaned.

"Well if you prefer frankness and honesty, let me once more be blunt," Kurama replied. "You are too inexperienced and he is too repressed. The two of you together is a disaster. And I can smell that you did more than just share dinner with him here last night."

Botan's jaw dropped at Kurama's last words.

"Though since it is only your scent that lingers, I must assume that the full act of consummation was not committed."

Botan almost fainted. She could feel the blood draining from her face.

"You can smell that?" she asked in a low voice.

"Am I wrong?" he returned.

"Well… I didn't…"

"I never said that you did. But clearly there was some act of impropriety performed here last night."

Botan turned her face to one side, suddenly no longer able to look at Kurama. This was not the sort of conversation she wanted to have with anyone, least of all someone as calm and indifferent about it as he was. She actually thought that being teased about it by Yusuke might be easier than this.

"Don't fret Botan, I don't intend to discuss this with Koenma," he added. "Though you may wish to exercise more caution there, as I believe he also has his suspicions about your recent change in behaviour."

Botan nodded, but kept her head turned away, still not yet brave enough to face him.

"There is something else I need to discuss with you," he continued. "I admit my reasons for ridding you of Koenma were not entirely selfless."

Botan dared to move her gaze back to Kurama, watching him from the corners of her eyes.

"I visited my apartment in the living world last night," he said. "And first of all I must thank you for all that you have done. I was not expecting you to expend so much energy on the second tree, but I am glad that you did: it has come to flower already."

"What?"

Botan turned to face Kurama then, all thoughts of their previous conversation vanishing from her mind.

"I expect the tree to bear fruit within the next day or so," he said. "And that is where I seek your assistance again."

"Okay…" she said slowly. "What do I have to do?"

"I need to experiment with the fruit your tree produces," he replied.

"It's not my tree," Botan quickly corrected him – she was not about to take the full blame for the third Tree of Previous Life.

"The fruit my own tree produces has more severe side effects that the fruit from the original tree," he continued, ignoring her interception. "This may sound a little foolish, but I don't wish to be alone when I experiment again. Will you come with me when I go back?"

"Will…"

Botan was speechless. It was unbelievably odd to be standing in front of the cool, calm and powerful Kurama and have him ask her so openly for help. He had actually made himself sound vulnerable, and she was beginning to wonder what was happening to the old team lately, as none of them were acting like themselves any more.

"Of course," she eventually managed. "But… What sort of side effects does the fruit have?"

Kurama smiled.

"I don't expect the fruit nurtured by your spirit energy to have anything like the side effects the fruit of my own creation has," he replied.

"Hn, if you're going to be so cryptic about it then don't bother answering at all!"

Botan folded her arms moodily and glared at Kurama, her sulk only lessening when she noticed that his expression was flickering between bemusement and amusement.

"…What is it?" she asked.

"Oh nothing," he replied. "I was just mildly amused to see that Hiei is not the only one adopting idiosyncrasies of speech that are not his own."

Botan sighed sharply.

"You're doing it again, mister mystic pants!" she snapped.

He smiled and gave a small, apologetic bow of his head.

"I'll let you clean yourself up," he said. "And I do suggest that you clean yourself up rather thoroughly: even Koenma could smell Hiei on you."

Botan paled again, but managed to nod her agreement.

"Thank you for… Not saying anything," she said quietly. "Again…"

"And thank you for your assistance," he replied.

He nodded at her before walking back inside the room. Botan's head was blank, but she found herself hurrying after him, one hand grabbing his elbow to halt his actions as he reached for the door. He paused, turning his head to look down at her hand on his arm before lifting his eyes to hers to give her a questioning look.

"I just wanted to know," she said awkwardly. "Are you helping me because we're sort of indebted to each other over my blunder with The Stolen Moment and your experiments with The Tree of Previous Life, or are you helping me because I'm your friend?"

Kurama gave her another of his tight smiles.

"You're very insecure, Botan," he said.

"That doesn't answer my question, mister vague!" she said moodily.

"Perhaps it's a little of both," he said. "There, is that better?"

"…No."

Kurama's smile widened slightly.

"Botan you are my friend," he said gently. "And before I go I will give you one last piece of friendly advice: don't rely too much on Hiei being able to give you what you are looking for. If you do, you will surely only face disappointment in the future."

"You don't know what I'm looking for," she replied, trying to sound confident.

"Hiei won't ever treat you the way Kuwabara treats Yukina," he said.

"I never said I wanted that."

"I'm not sure you mean that. Kuwabara is a gentleman, and the way he treats Yukina is a lesson to us all. Partly it's a lesson in how to write bad poetry and have a ready willingness to humiliate ourselves, but it's a lesson we could all benefit from learning, I'm sure."

Botan smiled then, feeling a little more reassured.

"Alrighty then, I understand," she said, releasing his arm. "When do you need me to go back to the living world with you?"

"Well, depending on how I fare during my next fight, hopefully tomorrow night," he replied.

"Okay dokay," she agreed with a nod.

He nodded and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway. Botan stepped out after him, watching him walk away. He did not look back, though she was not really sure that she had expected him to. She got the vague feeling that he was scheming something; but, she reasoned, he was Kurama, and he was always scheming at least one thing. Deciding that she trusted him, she shut herself back into her room and turned towards the bathroom.

* * *

Hiei sat, cross-legged, on the roof of one of the highest towers in Mukuro's territory. He was watching the sunset, though not because he liked to watch it set or because he had any sort of ideas about it being pretty or romantic. He was just bored and a little bit tired, and it was something to do to pass some time.

It was something to do to keep himself from leaving the boundaries of Mukuro's land.

Once the sun had gone down and night had taken over the skies, it would be too late to do anything other than find a place to sleep for the night, and that was what Hiei was trying to force himself to do. He had successfully passed the day sparring with some of Mukuro's top men, but they had all wanted to finish early so that they could have a good meal and long rest before the second round of the tournament started the next morning. Hiei, on the other hand, was just looking for excuses to stop himself from going back to that hotel and seeking out that woman again.

Three nights in a row he had visited her there, and each time he had failed to get any sort of closure or satisfaction out of it. He could have gone back that night, but he already knew that it would be a pointless venture. He knew that he would fail to ask her that question again and he knew that she would just work some more of her witchy magic on him to make him feel things that he could not understand or explain.

And, even though he had repeatedly dunked himself into the dirtiest pools he could find and sweated and bled in mock combat all day, he could still smell her on his own skin. He could even smell her on parts of his body that had been covered with multiple layers of clothing for the duration of his visit the night before. It was like her smell was getting under his skin the same way her smile and her mannerisms had.

Hiei felt very conflicted that night. He did not want to see the ferry girl and yet at the same time he needed to see her. He had resisted so much as using his jagan eye to check on what she might be doing: he knew that if he did, the irrational part of his brain that seemed to be taking over his actions of late would find an excuse to make him go to her. It was becoming ridiculous: he could not stand the sound of her voice, the language she used, the persistent smile she wore or those multiple layers of clothes she wore, so why did he want to be around her?

Actually, he thought darkly, he did quite like the multiple layers of clothes she wore, they added to the joy of unwrapping her. He had only been able to guess at what she looked like underneath all those layers, and, as far as he knew, he was the only one who did know what she looked like underneath all those layers. He doubted anyone else had stripped her like he had that night on the beach, and probably nobody else ever would. Despite the fact that she had become all haughty and run away from him that night, the memory of her lying beneath him in only her underwear was still a very pleasing one, mostly because he knew that nobody else had got, or ever would get, that far with her, and so he could keep that image for himself.

Hiei's eyes thinned as his last thought echoed around his mind, sounding worryingly more familiar each time he heard it.

"Keep her for myself," he muttered aloud. "Unless you intend to keep her for yourself."

Hiei relaxed a little as the memory returned to him: it was Kurama who had said those words. Kurama, who always knew more about everything than everyone else around him. Kurama who thought that he always knew more about everything than everyone else around him. He may well have been alive a lot longer than anyone else in his immediate acquaintance, but that had not made him any wiser. After all, he had wilfully chosen to possess a human body to preserve his own life. If Hiei ever found himself mortally wounded he would first kill whoever had inflicted the wounds and then just lie down and die with his dignity in tact. Not only was becoming a human undignified, but it had also clearly ruined Kurama. He had lost his edge, becoming crippled with emotions and ideas about love because of that human woman who had raised him.

Kurama had lived amongst humans for a long time and seemed to understand a lot about their funny ideas about love and romance, Hiei thought to himself. Kurama probably even understood what it was that the ferry girl expected from him.

A pity then that the fox was not susceptible to Hiei's mind-reading abilities.

Not that it mattered what the woman expected of him, Hiei reminded himself. He did not even care what she wanted or thought he just wanted to have her and find out why she was so interested in him. Clearly she was still afraid of him too, as the night before she had almost run into a wall to avoid him when he had locked them into the hotel room together. Why did she keep asking for it if she was only going to keep running away from him?

"Fuck it," Hiei grunted, yanking off his bandana, barely caring when he took a handful of his own hair with it.

He sighed heavily, closing his eyes and opening his jagan, letting it seek the woman out. He found her quite quickly, and unsurprisingly, she was in her hotel room. She was sitting on the floor, by the balcony door, with the curtain open, looking outside. She was dressed in bed-clothes, and her hair was loose, and by the way she had her arms hugged around her knees and her head hanging low, she looked as though she was close to sleep.

Hiei let his gaze linger on her for a few seconds, and shortly regretted his decision when she lifted her head and he saw something that immediately made him feel sick: she was crying.

She was not supposed to cry. The only time Hiei had ever seen or heard her cry was when Genkai died, and as far as he was aware, nobody else had died that day, so there was no valid reason for her to cry. After all, that was the only reason people cried: from extreme pain or dealing with death. The woman was not physically hurt and nobody was dead or even dying, so there was no reason for her to cry like that. She was not sobbing openly, but her eyes were watery and the knees of her pyjamas were wet with tears, and that was bad enough.

Deciding that, since he had gone as far as to seek her out he might as well delve a little further, Hiei carefully reached into her thoughts, keeping his intrusion as subtle as possible so as not to alert her to his presence. He could easily just talk to her telepathically and demand to know why she was behaving that way, but he had an idea that if he did talk to her, his feet might betray him again and take him to her door, so he restricted himself to just listening.

And for the second time that night, Hiei found himself wanting to throw up.

The woman was thinking about the ice village, in a level of detail she ought not to be familiar with.

Well this was deeply disturbing.

Hiei focused on keeping himself concealed within her mind, watching on in morbid interest as she thought about the pointed houses in the ice village, the sheer cliffs that surrounded the village, the freezing fog that permanently clouded the air, and, worst of all, the same wrinkled old hag who had ruled that Hiei should be flung to his death. Then, as though to make matters worse, she began thinking about the bitch who had actually thrown Hiei to his death. And not only was she thinking about that bitch, but she was thinking about her in unreasonable detail. It was not possible for the ferry girl to know what that woman looked like, since that woman had never left the ice village.

Hiei dug a little deeper: there was some sort of loose connection in the ferry girl's mind between the ice witch who had cast him out and Yukina. Maybe then the bitch had left the village. Maybe she had gone to Yukina for the birth of her child. Hiei began to growl at the thought of the ice maidens coming to claim Yukina's child for themselves: he would kill every one of them if they even tried such a dirty trick.

But, although Hiei could not determine why the ferry girl was thinking about the ice village or the witches who lived there, he could clearly see that it was not the reason for her sadness. She seemed hurt, though he could not sense any physical harm anywhere on her. It was very confusing, and it was starting to irritate him. If she did not process a logical thought soon as to why she was sitting there crying like a fool she was going to leave him with no other choice but to go to her and force an answer out of her.

In fact, he thought, he might just go over there anyway. He was quite bored, and it was something to do.

Hiei started to open his eyes and withdraw from her mind, but as her thoughts faded, he caught a glimpse of something extremely sobering. He quickly closed his eyes again and felt his way back inside her thoughts to confirm what he had heard the beginnings of, almost forgetting to breathe when his suspicions were immediately confirmed: she was thinking about him, and it was making her cry more openly.

And her next thought was so clear and so strong it felt like she had hit him over the back of the head with an anvil.

 _Kurama was right. I shouldn't have relied on Hiei. I should just give up, it hurts too much._

Hiei's eyes opened and his jagan closed. So it was a mental and emotional pain that she was suffering from. And it was his fault. And Kurama had already told her it would happen. So it seemed that Kurama was the same as he always had been in the years Hiei had known him – a pain who spoke the truth.

Hiei began to think that maybe the ferry girl had not been thinking about those bitches from the ice village after all. Maybe those had been his own thoughts. After all, it was those bitches who first foretold that he would destroy everything he touched in his life, and here, once again, he had just destroyed something else that he had put his hands on. He had enjoyed destroying everything he had even managed to, but there was no pleasure to be had from breaking Botan like that. She was never supposed to cry, she was supposed to smile and be happy and annoy the hell out of him with her chipper attitude and flowery talk.

Botan should have just stayed away from him. This was the price she was going to have to pay for being stupid enough to get so attached to him. She should have known better, she knew him well enough before she starting reeling him in with her charms.

And, Hiei told himself, this just proved that Botan was an idiot, and that he should stay away from Botan.

Botan.

Hiei staggered to a halt, blinking repeatedly and looking about himself. Luckily he had come to his senses before he had left the grounds of Mukuro's fortress, but he had already come down the tower and crossed the deserted training yard, and he had been running in the direction of the hotel that woman was staying at. He did not even know what he had intended to do once he got there: sleep outside her room again, he supposed. He had a fight the next day; a silly ferry girl crying over something ridiculous was not his concern.

Hiei turned and started back the way he had come. This obsession really was getting out of hand. Something was going to have to give very soon: he just hoped that it would not be own sanity.

* * *

As she sat down to watch the next round of the demon world tournament, Botan winced slightly. Her back hurt almost as much as her neck did. She had fallen asleep the night before propped up against the chair of the vanity table in her hotel room, and she had woken up in a position she had not thought physically possible. It had taken her ten minutes just to stand up without something aching or going numb. When she had finally got to her feet, she had stumbled a little, one foot stepping into a bowl of cold Milo and the other kicking over a half-empty bowl of tea. Both items had made her remember exactly why she had slept so terribly and in such a position, and that had instantly made her both worried and miserable.

Hiei had not visited her the night before.

She had expected Hiei to come to her room, just as he had done the previous three nights. She had waited up so late, so hopeful that he would eventually arrive. As the night had passed, her confidence had faded, and she had literally cried herself to sleep hugging the chair of the vanity table. That was only the third time she had ever cried herself to sleep, the previous two instances being the night after each of Genkai's deaths. She felt very silly that morning as she reflected back on the night before, since she had no real reason to get so upset that she cried. A part of her had known that Hiei might not come back, and Kurama had warned her that she could only expect disappointment if she relied on him in that way.

But it still hurt. Sleeping in his arms the night before that had been wonderful. She started to think that, since he had chosen to leave when Koenma was breaking into the room, he was actually ashamed to be seen with her. The thought hurt even more than being stood up by him, and she wondered if that was how he had felt the day she had pushed him off when Puu had caught them kissing; but she quickly dismissed that thought. Hiei had said to her that day that he was ashamed to be seen with her, so really she should have known that he would now be avoiding her after almost being caught with her, and knowing how little he apparently cared about anything, it was really stupid to think that he might be hurt by the thought of her being ashamed to be seen with him.

Botan wondered how it was so easy for Hiei to forget. She wished she could forget him as easily as he forgot her. She wished that she could be cool after a kiss, to turn from him as though it meant nothing. She wished that she could act like the touch of his warm hands on any part of her body did nothing to her, that she could teach her heart – like he had done his – that falling in love was a crime. She wondered when she would speak with Hiei again: if she did not seek him out, either just to speak to him or because Koenma ordered her to for one reason or another, she doubted that she ever would speak with Hiei again, because he would probably not bother looking for her. She was surprised he had even remembered who she was when she went to collect him for the mission to find The Stolen Moment.

Botan sighed, deciding that she was probably being too harsh on Hiei, since she was as much to blame for her predicament as he was. She had never fallen in love with anyone before (at least not in a romantic sense) and yet she had fallen in love with Hiei very quickly and felt far too many intense emotions towards him that she had never expected to experience. And in hindsight, on the nights that he had visited her, he had seemed preoccupied, as though he had some sort of ulterior motive for being there. She wondered if he knew about her delivering Yukina's letter, or – worse – if he knew about her assisting Kurama with his little experiments. Whatever the case was, Hiei clearly did not care for her, and he probably never would. She just wished that she knew how he could detach himself so completely, even after all the tender moments they had shared. She was almost tempted to seek him out after his fight and ask him how he did shut off from his feelings, if only so that she could learn how to forget about him too.

"Hey! Botan! Wake up!"

Botan blinked and turned her head, finding Koenma glaring at her, his teeth bared.

"Sir?" she said. "Are you alright? You look a little perturbed."

"Perturbed?" he echoed. "Botan, you haven't been listening to a word I've been saying this whole time! What is wrong with you lately?"

Botan forced a nervous grin, silently wondering how long her boss had been talking that she had not noticed a word he had said.

"Did you order more room service last night?" he demanded.

Botan shook her head. Obviously Koenma had not noticed her eating triple helpings at breakfast to compensate for the lack of an evening meal the night before. She had gone to her room unreasonably early the night before to wait for Hiei, and had ended up falling asleep with an empty stomach.

"You've not been paying attention, you've been disappearing, you've been doing silly things and you've constantly got a sad, far-off look on your face!" Koenma continued. "Botan, what do I have to do to get you back to your old self?"

Botan shrugged, since she did not even know the answer to that question herself. Koenma of course knew nothing of the things that were weighing on her mind: her disappointment with Hiei, her debt to Kurama and her pending return visit to the ice village. In fact, she thought sourly, nobody knew about all three of those things but her. She was starting to understand why Keiko liked to talk about her problems so much, because keeping them a secret was becoming more complicated than the secrets themselves.

"You should take a break."

Botan's eyes almost popped out of her head in shock.

"After this round, go and stay with Yukina or Keiko and relax," Koenma continued. "Just make sure that by the next round, you've sorted out your demons."

"My demons?" Botan echoed, a little too forcefully.

"You personal demons, whatever it is that's distracting you, just go and clear your head and come back as sensible and coherent Botan."

Botan sighed in relief, glad that Koenma had not literally meant demons, as in her ongoing problems with Hiei, Kurama and Yukina.

"Well, as sensible and coherent as you usually are, anyway," he added under his breath.

"Alrighty, I won't say no to a little vacation time!" she said cheerfully.

"It's not a vacation, it's just three days in the living world," he reminded her. "And I expect you to come back alert and focussed, and that you will have sorted out anything that's bothering you by then."

"Okay dokay Sir, I'll be…"

Botan slowly trailed off, as she realised that, during the next three days, two of her three distractions would be sorted anyway. That night she was going with Kurama to finish his experimentations with the Trees of Previous Life, and the day before the third round she was due to go back to the ice village to collect Rui's return letter to Yukina; so by the time the third round of the tournament started, she would have far less consuming her mind. Her debt to Kurama would be repaid, she would be finished helping Yukina, and that just left her problem with Hiei.

And everyone she had spoken to about it had made it pretty clear what they thought she ought to do; though of all the opinions she had listened to so far, Botan had not felt inclined to agree with any of them.

Botan tried to think of her most sensible friend, deciding that she would talk to that person, maybe even telling them a little more detail about what had been happening between herself and Hiei, and she would just do whatever that person told her, and finally her problem would be over. The first person that came to her mind was Shizuru: she was calm, level-headed, streetwise and the most well-versed in dealing with matters of the heart. But Shizuru had already told her to "resolve the tension".

Botan started again. Her next choice was Keiko. Keiko was such a nice girl, and she had been so patient and tolerant with Yusuke over the years, surely her opinion would be the most sensible. But then Botan remembered that Keiko had basically told her to "resolve the tension" too.

So not Shizuru or Keiko, Botan told herself. The next sensible person she could think of was of course Kurama, but the thought of asking him for advice about her lovelife made her more than a little embarrassed. Though, as she thought more about it, Kurama had already given her his opinion on the matter: the previous morning he had advised her to stay away from Hiei. So that was two votes for "resolve the tension" and one for give up.

Botan tried to think of the next most sensible person she knew, and found herself torn between Ayame and Izumi. Izumi had already told her the same thing that Shizuru and Keiko had, and although Ayame had not voiced her opinion on the matter, Botan suspected that she already knew what it would be: Ayame was not overly fond of demons in general, and Botan was sure that her friend would advise her to stay away from Hiei altogether.

Ayame was very sensible, Botan thought to herself. Koenma even defaulted to her in times of indecision, and, just like Botan, Ayame was a ferry girl and therefore would understand what it meant for a woman in her position to have feelings for a demon. Botan decided that she would find Ayame and talk to her as soon as she possibly could.

"Botan!"

"What?"

Botan turned to Koenma, finding him glaring at her again. His silky, chestnut hair was ruffled and bunched by the sides of his head as though he had been tugging at it unceremoniously in frustration.

"Sir, are you alright?" she asked softly.

"Botan, you weren't listening again!" he snapped.

"Oh Sir, I'm so sorry!" she apologised.

"I was trying to tell you about something very important!" he grumbled.

"Well alrighty, I'm listening now," she replied.

"It's too late now."

Koenma thumped his back against the backrest of the bench and folded his arms moodily. Botan frowned at him expectantly but he did not budge from his sulk. She lifted her eyes to George, sitting on Koenma's other side, arching her eyebrows at him expectantly, but he merely shrugged. Botan sighed, deciding that whatever it was that her boss had been trying to tell her, it could not have been especially important if he was refusing to repeat it. She sat back and turned her attention to the screen in time to see the coverage switch to the B division fights, which were starting with Hiei. Botan wondered if this round would be anything like the last, if Hiei would once more demonstrate his captivating skill with a sword; but when the camera shifted angles and revealed that Hiei's opponent was actually an enormous man, almost three times Hiei's height and easily five times his weight, Botan doubted the fight was going to be an elegant one.

Botan had enjoyed watching Hiei's last fight, not just because of the breathtaking beauty of the duel, but because at the end of the fight, Hiei had opted not to kill his opponent. Yusuke had said at the last demon world tournament that killing was not necessary, and it looked as though even Hiei was finally adopting that mentality. She was proud of him for making that change: she could still remember his brutality during the dark tournament, when he had been trapped in the medical tent by an enchantress and he had told Yusuke to forget the rules of the tournament, since his intention was to not only kill their opponents upon his release, but also to kill every spectator and member of the tournament committee. Hiei had changed since then, Botan thought to herself. She was not sure what had caused the change or why or even when it had happened, but he had definitely lost some of that viciousness. He had not, by any means, become soft or gentle, but he was certainly no longer the sort to kill for the sake of killing.

On the screen Botan saw Hiei's opponent draw back one fist, which was glowing with energy. He swung it forwards and Hiei vanished. Hiei reappeared again a few feet behind his opponent, his sword held loosely in one hand, blood dripping down the length of the blade, and his opponent's head in his other hand.

Botan's jaw dropped and her mind went blank.

"Ooh, delicious blood-fest people!" Koto squealed over the speakers. "Can we see a super-slow-motion replay of that?"

Someone somewhere enacted Koto's request and the screen replayed the brief fight at a pace that showed what had actually happened. It started with Hiei leaping onto his opponent's arm as he threw his punch. Hiei then pulled out his sword in an arcing action that cut through his opponent's neck, his other hand grabbing a handful of his opponent's hair to catch his falling head, before he leapt to the ground.

"Beautiful!" Koto cried.

The screen returned to Hiei standing by the fallen form of his opponent, his weapon still hanging from one hand and his opponent's head still hanging from the other, a smirk on his face.

"Hn, I hope the next round is less boring than this," he said.

"Oh dear," Koenma muttered. "It seems that Hiei is still as ruthless as ever."

"Yes," Botan agreed. "What a disappointment."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (Takes a deep breath to describe 10K word chapter) Hiei sees something he doesn't like, Botan asks Ayame for advice and is surprised at what she hears, Botan and Kurama go to finish growing the third Tree of Previous Life where much chaos ensues, including Botan meeting the special girl in Kurama's life and Koenma hears something he simply can't believe. **Chapter 28: The Side Effects**.

 **A/N:** There are just two things I wanted to point out: first of all, there is a lot of Hiei POV from now on because I want to show how his way of referring to Botan is changing (as it started to in this chapter). Secondly, (just like in the anime/manga) Kurama is never wrong in this fic! From chapter 1 onwards he's been saying and acting in a way that has been increasingly influential on events and points to how this fic is going to end (most especially the conversation he has with Hiei at the end of chapter 10, hint-hint…)


	28. The Side Effects

**A/N:** **Long chapter warning…**

 **Recap:** Kurama advised Botan not to get romantically involved with Hiei and asked her to join him in the living world to help him finish his experiments with the Fruit of Previous Life, Hiei stopped himself from visiting Botan again and Botan was disappointed that Hiei stood her up and fought brutally in his second round match.

* * *

 **Chapter 28: The Side Effects**

Hiei flung aside the severed head of the miserable excuse of an opponent he had just finished in barely three seconds. He gave his sword a few swipes through the air to shake off the excess blood before dropping the blade back into its scabbard. He then slowly left the site of the battle, unhooking his sword from his hip as he walked.

"Clean this," he ordered, tossing his sword at one of Mukuro's lackeys.

"Clean it yourself, I'm not your slave, you arrogant son of a bitch!" he shouted, tossing Hiei's sword back at him.

Hiei caught it and scowled angrily at the masked man, readying himself to remind the man that he had already been eliminated from the tournament, and therefore ought to be grateful just to be allowed to polish the sword of someone still winning: but his attention was drawn in another direction as the next two combatants started towards the ring.

"You better win this," he said.

Kurama turned his head and gave Hiei another of his mild and frustratingly vague smiles that could have meant anything. Hiei turned to watch the fox continue to the ring, where he was apparently facing a demon that looked part-cheetah. Hiei hesitated, instinct telling him to finish ordering Mukuro's slave to clean his sword and curiosity drawing him to stop long enough to watch Kurama fight. Of course, he had watched Kurama fight countless times before, and he had fought directly alongside him many times too: but something was different about Kurama lately, and he was curious to know if the fox had ever made up his mind about which form he was going to take, human or demon.

As usual, Kurama started his fight on the defensive. His opponent charged at him with speed that came close to impressing Hiei, but Kurama merely dodged every attempt, his eyes taking on that look he got when he was trying to strategise. One day, Hiei thought to himself, Kurama's over-thinking was going to get him killed. One day he would face an opponent who would not be thrown by his calm confidence, an opponent who would simply overpower him, an opponent who would not give him the chance to plan out some complicated strategy to win, and opponent who would simply destroy him in the blink of an eye. Fortunately for Kurama, today would probably not be that day, since his opponent was clearly not in the same class as he was: though that was all the more reason for him to end things quickly, Hiei thought.

But still Kurama seemed intent on dragging the fight out far longer than was necessary. And, as though to prove Hiei's point, Kurama was suddenly reeling backwards, his opponent having successfully torn his claws down Kurama's chest, tearing clothing and skin alike. Apparently though the blow was enough to bring Kurama to his senses, as he finally drew his favourite weapon. The cheetah demon started to leap back out of range, raising his arms to block a hit, but Kurama wisely aimed low, the end of his rose whip entangling in his opponent's ankles and taking him from his feet. The cheetah was quick to rise again, but he did not get his arms up fast enough to block the next lash of Kurama's whip, which this time wound around his neck.

Hiei grinned, finally finding the fight worth watching. One little tug from Kurama would be enough to take the cheetah's head clean from his shoulders. Kurama gave a small jerk of his wrist and the whip tightened, drawing blood from his opponent's throat. The cheetah choked out a cry of surprise before dropping to his knees, clearly struggling for air.

"This fight is over," Kurama said. "Surrender now and I will spare your life."

Hiei rolled his eyes but bit back the urge to yell at Kurama to stop being so ludicrously merciful.

"Come now, this doesn't have to end with your death," Kurama said.

The cheetah grabbed a hand at the whip around his neck but another jerk of Kurama's wrist tightened it further and his hand fell to his side again.

"I-I give up," the cheetah reluctantly announced.

Kurama nodded and eased his weapon loose. The cheetah gladly slumped to the ground as the pressure lessened, and Kurama casually turned to walk from the ring as he was announced the winner. Hiei narrowed his eyes critically as Kurama drew closer: the wound on his chest was worse than it had appeared at the time of infliction, and it had been completely unnecessary, since he could easily have defeated his opponent much sooner than he did.

"Well it looks like we both made it through to the next round, Hiei," he said as he joined Hiei.

Hiei ran his eyes over Kurama.

"Some of us more efficiently so than others," he said flatly.

Kurama gave another of his little smiles, touching a hand to the ragged, bloodstained material over his chest.

"A minor wound, I assure you," he said calmly.

"Hn."

Kurama walked on, and, seeing that the next two fighters looked suitably boring, Hiei followed after him.

"I suppose that once you've had yourself stitched up you'll be wasting this evening with your "friends" again," Hiei said as he drew level with Kurama.

Kurama smiled down at him and there was no mistaking the mischievous glint in his eyes: he was about to say something condescending, presumptuous, insulting or all three.

"On the contrary," he said. "I have much to do between now and the next round to prepare for the challenge I face. But you are more than welcome to go in my place. I'm sure everyone would be glad to see you."

"Hn, I have plenty of better things to do with my time," Hiei plainly replied.

"I see," Kurama said with a small nod. "Another night of sitting in a tree contemplating over your own infinite superiority, then?"

Hiei stopped short and turned his head abruptly to glare at Kurama, who either did not notice or did not care, as he continued on alone.

"Maybe if you spent less time being cheeky and more time perfecting your offence, you wouldn't be walking around with a big hole in your chest right now!" Hiei yelled after him.

"It's just a minor wound, but your concern is flattering, Hiei," Kurama replied, without stopping or turning around. "And perhaps you should check what the next round holds for you before you begin lecturing me on preparations."

Hiei opened his mouth to argue further, but stopped as he saw Mukuro's masked associate walking towards him.

"You!" he snapped, throwing his sword at the man again. "Clean my fucking sword, or I will kill you!"

The man grumbled a few things about rankings and length of service to Mukuro, but Hiei blocked him out, instead moving to the nearest tournament noticeboard to find out what Kurama was talking about. The first two rounds of the tournament had been ridiculously easy, and Hiei thought that he would actually welcome a tough opponent in the next round; and a part of him wondered why Kurama did not feel the same way, after having two easy fights himself and a far easier battle royal qualifier than Hiei had endured.

Almost as soon as Hiei reached the tournament noticeboard he saw his own name and the opponent he would face in the next round. He gave a small smile then, pleased at least that the next round would be a challenge, and one that he could actually look forward to. Moving his eyes down one slot he saw Kurama's name, and it was immediately obvious why Kurama needed so much time to prepare himself for his next opponent. Hiei allowed himself a small laugh – it was, after all, highly amusing. So amusing in fact, he might just go and tease Kurama about it. The fox had certainly taken delight in winding him up in the past, and now he finally had something he could torment Kurama with.

Hiei turned around, looking up and down the corridor for any sign of Kurama. The fox was already out of sight, but Hiei had an idea about which way he would have gone. He ran to the medical bay, quickly checking each room, surprised to find that Kurama was not there, despite his injury. Hiei took himself to the lounge where multiple television screens were showing the action from all four divisions at once, as well as showing Koto at the arena announcing the action. Kurama was not in the lounge either, which was also surprising, but before he left the room Hiei noticed something on the centre screen and he paused.

Kurama was, inexplicably, walking through the stands of the audience watching the tournament from the arena. That was very odd, but Hiei did not dwell on the thought, instead racing off to the arena in pursuit. At his speed, Hiei quickly reached the lower entrance to the seating area, where he slowed down, looking about himself until he saw Kurama's tell-tale long red hair moving through the crowds. Hiei started to push his way onwards to follow, but stopped abruptly when he noticed that Kurama had stopped partway up the steps.

Kurama was standing in the middle of the stairway with the ferry girl. In fact, he was standing unreasonably close to the ferry girl in the middle of the stairway. His face was almost touching hers. She was looking up at him a little too intensely. And he was holding her hands in his.

A demon bumped into Hiei on his way back to his seat and Hiei angrily shoved him to the ground, ignoring the insults and complaints others around him yelled at him. Logically he knew that he ought to either use his jagan eye to go into the woman's head or else run over to join them and find out what was going on, but something kept his feet glued to the spot and his jagan tightly shut. Yet again that woman was making him feel something unusual, but this time at least the feeling was quite close to anger, and he felt like it could easily be satisfied with a healthy dose of violence and bloodshed: another reason he was disappointed his opponent that day had not given him a decent workout.

Hiei took one last look at Kurama and Botan standing too closely together, him holding her hands and her gazing up at him, before turning on his heel and fleeing.

* * *

"Well now that is silly, would you look at that?" Koenma said.

Botan turned her head in the direction he was pointing, her eyes doubling in size as she sighted Kurama making his way up the steps towards where she was sat, one hand pressed to the bloody wounds on his chest.

"Oh goodness, he should be getting those wounds treated!" she cried, leaping up from her seat.

Botan hurriedly picked her way past the others sat in her row, almost tripping over a foot as she finally reached the stairs. She ran all the way down until she was only one step above Kurama, at which point he finally noticed her. He looked a little surprised to see her, which seemed ridiculous to her, since she was the one who ought to be surprised.

"What are you doing, you silly boy?" she said.

"I have come to sit with you," he said, stepping up to bring himself level with her.

"Oh no you haven't!" she argued. "You need to get those wounds treated!"

"These are nothing, I assure you," he calmly replied.

"Oh don't play mister tough guy with me! Now either you let me take you to a doctor or I will heal those wounds myself!"

"Please, Botan, there is no need."

"Well I never pegged you as a stubborn one, Mister Kurama!"

Botan let out a short, sharp sigh and lifted up her hands, readying herself to use her powers to seal the gouges in Kurama's chest. To her surprise his eyes suddenly widened and he quickly grabbed his hands around hers, halting her action.

"Please, Botan, don't do that!" he whispered.

"What?" she echoed, leaning closer to him. "Why?"

Botan found herself whispering too, though she was unsure what the secret was.

"Botan, we have to tend to the tree today," he whispered. "I need you to conserve your energy for that exercise, please don't waste any healing me. Trust me, these wounds will heal by nightfall. If not before, then they certainly will heal once I revert to my full demon form."

"Oh, I see!" Botan whispered back. "That's very clever!"

"Yes, it is," he replied, giving her a patient smile. "Now let's sit down and watch Yusuke fight."

"Oh, alrighty then!"

"You can stop whispering now."

"Oh. Yes, of course!"

Botan laughed nervously and Kurama gave her another patient smile in reply. He released her hands and she turned around to start towards her seat again, surprised to see Koenma was watching her with a curious and almost suspicious look: she hoped he did not suspect anything about the favour she was doing for Kurama, as it would surely be disastrous for her and Kurama if Koenma ever found out the truth.

* * *

After the second round tournament matches ended, Kurama told Botan that he was going to have a shower and change his clothes, but afterwards they would go back to the living world to check on the trees. Botan decided to use the time waiting for him to do the one thing she had been thinking about since that morning: she flew high into the sky on her oar to ensure that she would be alone and then took out her communicator and called Ayame.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully when Ayame's face appeared in front of her.

"Botan, aren't you in demon world right now?" Ayame replied.

"Yes, but I needed to ask you a very important question," Botan answered.

She saw Ayame look about herself as though she was trying to see something beyond the back of Botan's head. Botan turned and looked behind herself but saw nothing of interest.

"It's not really safe for you to call me, Botan," Ayame explained. "If you were caught by a demon, you could be killed!"

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Botan said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Are you sure–"

"I'll be super quick, I promise!"

"Okay, go on."

"Here's the thing: I think I'm in love with a demon."

"Oh, Botan, I thought that was just a rumour."

Botan shook her head.

"No," she continued. "It's true. And the thing is, some of my friends have told me that maybe it's not actually love, maybe it's just… Physical attraction. They say I could forget about him if I just… Went to bed with him. But I don't really like that idea it seems quite dirty. So you see, it's quite the pickle. And I just wondered what you would do if you were in my situation?"

Ayame's face contorted slightly and there was a long pause before she eventually answered.

"Does Lord Koenma know about this?" she asked.

"No," Botan replied. "Well, yes, sort of. I did accidentally tell him that I was in love with a demon, but I didn't say who or that I was thinking about just… Well, you know…"

"Botan, you shouldn't even be thinking about doing something like that! It's not right for a ferry girl to think that way! You must have been tainted from being in demon world and spending so much time around all those demons! You should come back to spirit world immediately!"

"…Really? But what about the tournament?"

"Does watching demons tear each other apart in bloody combat really appeal to you?"

"Well, it's quite exciting actually. Especially when it's one of my friends that are fighting, they're all so strong and skilled."

"There, you see? No ferry girl enjoys blood and violence, and no ferry girl calls a demon her "friend". Botan please, for your own safety, come back to spirit world and give up this madness!"

Botan's smile slowly faded.

"I wasn't expecting you to be so… Harsh…" she said weakly.

"What were you expecting me to say?" Ayame asked. "Did you think I would advise you to surrender your body to a demon?"

"Well it's not exactly… I mean you make it sound so… Yes, I suppose you're right…"

"Please come back, Botan. I'm sure Lord Koenma would rather you were back here where you belong than in demon world losing your dignity at the filthy hands of a demon."

Botan wanted to tell Ayame that she was wrong, but ferry girl training told her otherwise. Ferry girl training told her that everything Ayame was saying was true, and that she ought to be of the same mentality as her friend, and she should not to even be entertaining the idea of getting involved with a demon.

"Thank you, Ayame," she said softly. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Botan snapped her communicator shut and slowly drifted back down to the ground, where she found Kurama looking for her. He came over to her with a smile and said something that she barely heard. She felt suddenly depressed, as though all hope had been taken from her: though she could not be sure why. She had never wanted to just pursue a physical relationship with Hiei, she had always wanted romance and love or nothing at all, so why was it so difficult to accept Ayame's opinion on the matter?

"Botan?"

"Hm?"

Botan turned to Kurama, finding him frowning at her.

"Are you ready to go now?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, holding up her oar loosely. "Hop on."

She eased herself onto her oar and turned to Kurama expectantly. He gave a slightly confused look before sitting down next to her. Slowly Botan found herself forgetting her worries, her curiosity at her current predicament taking over her misery.

"What are you doing?" she asked, eying Kurama over.

"You said I should "hop on"," he replied, looking a little hurt. "It would be faster for me to fly with you, if that's alright."

"But you're…"

Botan frowned at him but he appeared as confused as she felt.

"Well alrighty then," she said flatly, lifting them up into the air. "Very unusual, but why not?"

Kurama's frown deepened.

"I don't understand," he said.

"Well usually when I take someone on my oar, like Kuwabara for example, he sits the other way," she replied.

"The other way?" Kurama asked.

"Yes, you know, with the handle between his legs. The man way. You're sitting like me: the woman way."

Kurama's eyebrows lifted then and he looked down at himself before meeting her eyes again.

"This is how you ride, I just assumed it was the best way," he replied.

"Well it's nicer like this," she said. "Because we're sitting side-by-side this way."

"You want me to move–"

"No, it's fine!"

Botan smiled reassuringly at Kurama, but he looked less than convinced. He seemed a little tense, which was very unlike him, and when she looked down at his hand next to hers, she noticed that he was gripping her oar very tightly.

"Are you afraid of flying?" she asked him.

"No," he replied without hesitation.

"Oh."

Botan turned her head from him, looking ahead to the portal back to the living world. She was more than a little worried herself about what she was about to do, the last thing her already guilty and apprehensive conscience needed was Kurama losing his cool.

"So why don't the fruits you grew work?" she asked as they neared the portal.

"They do work," he replied.

"But you said they didn't," she said.

"No, they do work, it is the side effects of consuming them that are the problem," he said.

"Oh. What sort of side effects?"

"The fruits I grew bring out the violent side of my demonic nature."

Botan tensed, feeling suddenly light-headed. She tried to tell herself that she was feeling woozy because she had just passed into the living realm and not because of what Kurama was telling her.

"And the original fruit didn't do that, right?" she asked.

"Not exactly, no," he replied. "It did have side effects, but it certainly did not invoke the same uncontrollable bloodlust that my own fruits do."

""Uncontrollable bloodlust"?" Botan repeated through laughter. "Oh Kurama! You had me so worried! It's very cruel to play a trick like that on a girl! As if you would ever have "uncontrollable bloodlust"! Mister calm and confident himself!"

"Botan, that was not a joke," Kurama sternly replied. "I became quite violent the first time I consumed one of my own fruits. This is why I asked for your assistance, your pure spirit energy and benign nature should hopefully have a calming effect. Even the original fruit brought out harsher aspects of my nature."

"What?" Botan echoed. "I don't remember that!"

"I became very arrogant when I used the original Fruit of Previous Life. The rush of power and the ability to once more summon and control some of the most powerful demon plants made me lose sight of my objectives. I need to find something that will allow me to take my full demon form without making me so blinded by over-confidence or rage."

"And you think the tree I grew will produce fruits that can do that?"

"I'm hoping so."

Botan nodded.

"Can I ask why you're doing this?" she asked quietly. "You're strong enough as you are, I didn't think you still even wanted to revert back to your full demon form."

"It's a little more complicated than that," Kurama replied. "In this form I can only control a limited number of plants, and that does restrict my options in battle. But more than that, this mortal body will age and in time die, and at that point I need to be able to revert back to my full demon form, and I have observed that every time I consume any Fruit of Previous Life, I retain more and more of my original demon power. I imagine that, with prolonged use, I will eventually just return to my former self permanently."

"Oh, I see. Very sensible, yes. Always planning ahead. You're so sensible, Kurama. I could never think that far ahead. You always see every possibility and plan for it."

Botan sighed. She wished she could be as sensible and clever as Kurama. Maybe then she would not be struggling with indecision like she currently was.

"Well, here we are," she said, taking them down to land by the front of Kurama's apartment block.

They hopped off the oar together and Botan banished it. She started to walk towards the building but Kurama grabbed her arm to halt her actions.

"Uh, Botan?" he said quietly.

"Yes?" she responded, turning to look up at him.

"Are you… Happy to proceed as you are?" he asked.

She did not fail to notice the way his large green eyes trailed over her as he spoke, and she looked down to see what it was that he was referring to.

"What do you mean?" she asked, when she could not find anything amiss.

"Your outfit is a little… Eye-catching," he carefully replied. "Something a little more inconspicuous might have been better in this instance."

Botan looked down at herself again. She was still in her ferry girl pink kimono, which, she supposed, would make her stand out in the middle of Kyoto city at night.

"Let's pretend I was at a culture festival," she said with a smile.

Kurama gave a small laugh.

"Nothing ever gets you down, does it Botan?" he asked.

"There's a silver lining on every cloud, Kurama," she replied.

He nodded.

"After you."

Botan gladly walked on ahead of him to the door, which he opened for her. He was very polite, she thought to herself as she entered the building. Her next thought was that he was maybe too polite, as her senses were immediately invaded by the sounds of loud music, loud voices and the smells of alcohol and cigarette smoke.

"Is there a party in here?" she asked as she started up the stairs.

"Probably, yes," Kurama replied. "This building is mostly inhabited by students, they often have parties."

"Do you like to party, Kurama?" Botan asked, grinning down at him.

"Well, I, uh–"

"Shuichi!"

"Oh dear…"

Kurama stopped and Botan stopped four steps up from him, both turning as a small group of girls staggered over to the foot of the staircase, gazing up at them curiously.

"Hey, Shuichi!" one of the girls sang, waving a hand at him.

"Hello," Kurama replied, waving back at her.

"We're having a party, do you wanna join us?"

"Oh, no thank you. I do appreciate the offer though."

"Aw!" one of the other girls moaned. "Come on, Shuichi! You never come to our parties!"

"Hey!" another girl said. "You can even bring your girlfriend if you want!"

Kurama made a small noise that was somewhere between a nervous laugh and a cough, and Botan was almost certain that he was starting to sweat. Her curiosity peaked, she backed down to bring herself onto the same step as him, bringing herself fully into the line of sight of the girls.

"Oh…" she heard them all say as they spotted her.

"Hello!" Botan called to them.

"Oh my God," one of the girls said. "Finally we get to meet Shuichi's girlfriend!"

"We all thought you were housebound, or something!" one of the others said.

"Yeah, how come we never see you out and about, Hana?" the third girl asked.

"Hana?" Botan echoed, turning to Kurama.

Botan almost fell over when she saw that Kurama was distinctly blushing.

"Yes, well, Hana needs her sleep," he said, grabbing Botan's shoulders and turning her around.

"Hey Hana, come down here and tell us all about Shuichi!" one of the girls called after them as Kurama began pushing Botan up the stairs ahead of himself.

"Yeah, come on, join us!"

"No thank you!" Kurama called back to them.

Botan stumbled on awkwardly until they reached Kurama's front door, where he finally released her. She turned to him with a grin, still surprised to see how flustered he was.

"So…" she said slowly. "Who's "Hana"?"

"She's my…" he began, fumbling with his key. "Well, you'll meet her when we get inside."

Botan's face dropped.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, opening the door.

"But I had – oh holy smokes!"

Botan leapt to one side as she was again confronted with the frightening fox portrait hanging on Kurama's hall wall. He closed the door behind her and held out a hand to indicate that she should go through to the living room, which she did, gladly sitting down onto the futon as her heart steadied. Once she had calmed down she began looking about herself eagerly.

"So?" she said. "Where's Hana?"

"I don't know," Kurama replied.

Botan turned to him, pulling a face at him as he casually entered the kitchen area.

"What do you mean you don't know?" she snapped. "And it's very rude of you to keep a girlfriend here and not tell your friends about her! And why didn't you tell me about her before? She could have been here when I came to plant that tree for you! How would I have explained my presence and that tree to her?"

Botan touched a finger to one corner of her mouth.

"That's assuming Hana is a human woman…"

She turned to Kurama with a scrutinising glare, but he was preoccupied with something inside his fridge.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm making dinner for Hana," he replied.

"Oh, how sweet!" Botan squealed, clapping her hands in joy. "You cook for her too? Oh isn't that just delightful! But where is she? I want to meet the lucky girl who captured your heart, Kurama!"

Kurama did not answer her, instead continuing his work. Botan began to grow impatient: the apartment was tiny, there was really nowhere for anyone to hide. As she could not see anyone in the living room or kitchen, the only other places Hana could possibly be was either in the bathroom or in the bedroom with Kurama's experiments. Perhaps he had told Hana what he really was and she was in the same room as the trees, Botan mused.

Turning back to the kitchen she saw Kurama remove a plate from the microwave, poking his finger at the contents as he crossed over to the breakfast bar.

"There we are," he said, placing the plate down.

Botan sniffed at the air, wondering why she could not smell what he had just cooked. She craned her neck to see what was on the plate, but from where she sat, it looked like nothing more than a plate of plain rice.

"That's not very romantic," she commented, rising to her feet. "Microwaving a meal for your girlfriend."

She moved over to stand opposite Kurama, looking down at the plate. She stared at the contents for a long time to be absolutely sure that her eyes were not deceiving her before lifting her head to meet Kurama's eyes.

"Kurama?" she said. "This is a plate of maggots."

"Yes, it is," he replied. "A special breed from demon world."

Botan nodded her head, looking down at the plate of steaming insect larvae again.

"Is Hana you first girlfriend, Kurama?" she asked. "Because this may be why you've never had a girlfriend before. You see the thing is about us girls Kurama, we don't like to eat parasitic bugs."

She looked up at Kurama again but he merely gave her a patient smile.

"It seems Hana is feeling stubborn tonight," he said. "I can't take live insects from demon world here to feed her, so I have to purchase the frozen variety. She prefers live prey, and she can be surprisingly temperamental about eating this substitute. You might wish to turn away for a minute."

"Why?" Botan asked, watching Kurama intently as he crossed over to the fridge again. "What are you going to do? And why would you feed your girlfriend on insects anyway? What sort of girl is she?"

"You misunderstand, Botan," he replied as he opened the fridge door. "Hana is not my lover."

"Oh."

Botan tensed a little, silently wondering why Kurama had to use the word "lover"; it seemed a bit intense and made her feel slightly awkward for quizzing him on the matter.

"Hana escaped from my apartment one night, and I had to coax her back inside by calling on her and offering her treats," he continued.

Botan's eyes grew large, her mind picturing Kurama shaking a box of chocolates at a frightened girl hiding in the stairwell of his apartment block.

"The girls downstairs heard me calling her name and asked me who she was. I tried to tell them that she was just a pet cat, but the girls heard me calling Hana many times more and they even heard me talking to her, and they have come to the conclusion that she must be my girlfriend."

Botan started to feel sick as Kurama came back over with a lump of raw steak in his hands.

"The smell of blood usually gets her attention," he explained, squeezing the meat over the plate of maggots.

Botan swallowed hard, covering her mouth and nose with one sleeve.

"I'm surprised you did not see Hana the day you came here to plant the tree," he added, crossing back over to return the steak to the fridge. "She's very inquisitive around strangers, I thought she might have approached you."

"No…" Botan said slowly. "I didn't see any cats when I came here. Just a little plant monster that licked my knee."

Kurama frowned at Botan as though she was the one being ridiculous.

"…What?" she asked.

"That would be Hana," he replied.

"What?" she echoed.

He pointed at something over her shoulder and she turned to see the same odd little plant creature she had been referring to crossing the living room floor.

"That's Hana?" she asked, turning back to Kurama.

"Yes, that's Hana," he replied.

"…You name your plants?"

"This one I did. She's a very important plant."

"And she's a girl?"

"Yes. It's impossible to acquire the male variety of this plant. I bought Hana in demon world and I've been nurturing her for her seeds."

"…Right…"

Botan took a large step back as Kurama lifted up Hana and placed her by the plate. She swallowed hard as Kurama began hand-feeding blood-soaked maggots to the plant, apparently unaffected by how sickening a display his actions made for.

"Wouldn't it be more hygienic to feed her on the floor?" Botan asked.

Kurama turned his eyes to her, the look on his face suggesting that he did not even understand what she had just asked.

"…You really love your plants, don't you Kurama?" she asked.

Kurama said nothing, but he did not need to. Botan moved back over to the futon and sat down, torn between wanting to watch Kurama feed the plant and wanting to look away because it repulsed her. The sweet, sticky smell of the inside of Hana's mouth was starting to fill the air, mingling with the smell of blood and warm maggots, and Botan began wondering if Hana was the real reason Kurama's flat had previously smelt so strongly of flowers: maybe he needed to fumigate the whole apartment every day to mask the stench of Hana's diet.

Once the plant had eventually finished feeding Kurama washed his hands and picked her up into his arms, walking over to meet Botan by the futon.

"Hana is a very powerful type of demon plant," he said. "And as you can probably see, she has no respect for me in this form."

Botan arched her eyebrows in surprised as the plant actually snaked its way under Kurama's elbow in its desperation to escape his hold. It landed a little awkwardly on the ground by his feet before walking off into a corner of the room, where it settled on a small beanbag.

"And she does respect you in your full demon form?" Botan asked, turning back to Kurama.

"In my full demon form I can encourage her to grow and produce seeds," he replied. "That is, after all, the purpose of my keeping her. As a plant, she is only useful as a seed-bearer. She has started to produce seeds of the female variety, but not the male. The male variety of her species is the one I need for combat."

"So you also need to transform because you need to gets seeds out of Hana?" Botan asked.

"Yes, I need to get the seeds, and I need to be able to use them and to control the plant that will grow from them."

"What sort of plant is the boy one? Is it a bug-eating, petal-faced, moody little thing too?"

"No. The male variety eats blood and spirit energy."

Botan paled, but the perfectly serious look on Kurama's face told her that he was not joking.

"Nice," she said.

He nodded.

"Shall we tend to the tree?" he asked.

"Of course," she agreed, standing up and following him to the bedroom. "Isn't this funny? You and me, going to your bedroom alone together!"

Kurama paused, his hand on the door-handle. Botan then realised what she had just said, and began to turn red.

"I didn't mean it like that!" she quickly added.

"I think I'm starting to sympathise with Hiei," he said quietly, before opening the door and stepping into the room beyond.

Botan started to ask him what he meant, but her voice failed her partway through her sentence as she saw what lay inside the room. Seeing the glowing flowers and the near-identical Tree of Previous Life again was surprising enough, but when Botan saw the second tree, the one she had planted, she began to feel extremely stupid and a little bit afraid.

"Oopsie!" she said awkwardly, touching the tips of her index fingers together. "I guess this was a failed experiment then?"

Kurama turned to her, looking genuinely at a loss to her meaning.

"It's not much of a tree, is it?" she added, pointing one finger at the plant she had created.

Unlike the tree Kurama had grown himself, the one Botan had planted had grown to look absolutely nothing like the original tree. In fact, what had grown from the fruit Botan had planted was not even a tree at all, she thought miserably. It looked more like a sort of bush, with spindly branches and curly leaves, and the flowers that had sprouted from it looked like an entirely different species. The flowers on the original tree and even those on Kurama's tree were small and white, their petals growing in long flutes, and they grew in clumps of several flower-heads. The flowers on Botan's tree were big and pink, with wide, open faces like pansies, and they grew individually. The flowers on Botan's tree were in fact so big, that where they grew, they weighed down the thin branch they were attached to.

"I suppose I just don't have the same way with plants that you do, Kurama," she said miserably. "I mean look at that vine I planted outside of Genkai's temple. It didn't do at all what it was supposed to!"

"Yes it did," Kurama replied.

"No, it didn't attack Hiei when he said horrible things or even when he tried to hit me, but it attacked him when he was doing absolutely nothing!"

Kurama frowned slightly, but shortly covered his expression with a tight smile.

"Let's not worry about that now," he suggested. "I need your tree to start producing fruit, so if you could please donate some of your spirit energy to it to accelerate its growth a little."

"Maybe you should donate some of yours," Botan replied.

"No, that would taint the plant. It must be you."

"But it's not even a proper tree!"

"I didn't expect it to look exactly the same–"

"But it doesn't even look slightly the same!"

"Please, Botan, I assure you, this experiment has not been a failure."

"Well alrighty then, if you say so."

Botan moved over to the unusual bushy plant, eying it over and giving one last look at the practically indistinguishable version Kurama had grown before kneeling down by the pot and placing her hands over the soil at the base of the tree. She closed her eyes and focussed her energy into the soil, the sound of creaking branches above her telling her that the plant was at least growing in response to her actions; though she did wonder what the point was, since the plant was obviously a failure.

"Botan, that's fine, you can stop."

She stopped at the sound of Kurama's voice, opening her eyes and looking up to see what had happened. She screamed involuntarily, falling back onto her backside and scrambling back from the plant until her back hit the wall.

"What have I done now?" she wailed.

The plant had grown up to the roof of the room and spread outwards, several of the branches wilting down almost to the ground where fruits had grown.

"It's supposed to be a small tree with thick branches, not a tall bush with thin branches!" she cried.

"It's alright, it has produced fruit, and that was all I needed," Kurama calmly replied, crouching down to pick a fruit from one of the branches.

"Don't eat that!" Botan said hurriedly. "It's completely the wrong size, shape and colour! You don't know what it might do to you!"

"That's part of the reason why you're here, Botan," he replied. "I expect there to be some sort of side effect, but I trust you to make sure I don't leave the apartment after I transform. I'm sure you understand that it would make for even more gossip amongst my female neighbours if they saw a seven-feet tall, silver-haired man with fox ears leaving my apartment."

Botan laughed nervously but Kurama remained perfectly serious, rising to his feet with the fruit resting in the palm of his hand. Botan crawled over to her plant, poking a finger at one of the fruits hanging there. The original fruits, including the one she had taken and planted there, were bright red and the shape and texture of a giant plum. The fruits on Botan's tree were slighter harder, pale pink and the same shape and size as a pear, which was barely half the size of the original fruits.

"One fruit probably only contains one dose," Kurama muttered.

Botan lifted her head to him, but he had turned away and was starting to leave the room. She hurriedly got to her feet and started to run after him, staggering a little as she reached the doorway.

"Oopsie, I guess I used a little bit more spirit energy than I meant to there!" she said, grabbing at the doorway.

She felt Kurama grab one of her arms and she did not complain as he guided her back to the living room and over to the futon, which she gladly sat down onto. Her head buzzed a little, but a few long, slow blinks started to clear it. Meanwhile Kurama had moved over to the kitchen and begun juicing the fruit into a glass.

"What if it does something terrible to you?" Botan asked him.

"I don't believe that it will," he replied confidently. "The worst possible outcome will be that the fruit is ineffective or does not regress me far enough back."

"…Far enough back?"

"Well, it may only regress me fifteen years or so."

"…What would that mean?"

"It would mean you will be spending the next fifteen minutes with pre-school Shuichi."

"What?!"

Botan turned abruptly to face Kurama directly, whimpering as she saw him tip back the glass, swallowing the contents in one gulp.

"Oh Kurama, you shouldn't just drink something until you know what it does!" she moaned.

"How else will I know if I don't drink it?" he asked, placing the glass back onto the counter.

"Oh dear, and it hasn't worked," she said as he wiped the back of one hand across his lips.

He shook his head, leaning back against the kitchen counter.

"It can take a few minutes for it to take effect when I drink it," he explained. "When the juice is released as a gas the effect is instant. This way it takes time for my body to absorb it."

"Well maybe you should come over here and sit down, just in case."

"No, I think I should keep my distance. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt you."

Botan tensed, gripping her hands into the futon cushions.

"You wouldn't hurt me!" she laughed nervously. "You're my friend!"

"Like I already said, one of the consistent side effects of taking any variety of the Fruit of Previous Life is that I forget elements of myself."

"…That isn't very reassuring, Kurama."

He let out a small groan and lowered his head into his hands. Botan held her breath as she saw his red hair lighten and velvety ears sprout out of his head. Within a matter of seconds she was no longer looking at the Kurama she knew, but rather a tall, strong-bodied, silver-haired fox demon. He lifted his head, looking about himself with golden eyes that were almost predatory. He looked a little confused at first, but seemed to come to his senses when his eyes landed on the plate he had served Hana's dinner on.

Botan turned her head at the sound of something falling over at her side, her eyes widening as she saw the little carnivorous plant bounding across the room towards the kitchen. She turned back to Kurama, who crouched down out of her line of sight. When he stood up again, the odd little plant had wound its vinelike body around one of his arms and was resting its head against his chest.

"Oh wow!" she gasped. "Hana really does like you better in that form."

Kurama's golden eyes looked directly at Botan for the first time, and she swallowed hard, feeling as though he was somehow seeing right through her and into her soul. He looked at her for a long time without even blinking before finally answering her.

"Yes, in this body I find myself far more charming," he said.

His voice was deeper and slightly rougher than usual, and Botan had to focus to remember who he was.

"This is coming along very well," he said suddenly.

Botan yelped as she saw that he had peeled back the top part of Hana's head, which was just a petal, the underside of which was sprouting a ring of seeds. He replaced the petal and held his arm out to his side, and the plant obediently slid to the ground, where it looked up at him almost lovingly: or at least, as lovingly as a fanged plant with no eyes could do. He stepped over the plant and slowly moved into the living room, smiling at Botan as she met his eyes. As he got closer to the back of the futon Botan started to remember what he had said about side effects, and she hurriedly leapt to her feet, spinning around to face him; and almost falling over as she made herself dizzy again.

"Careful there," Kurama said, slowly starting towards her.

"Oh, that's alright!" she hurriedly replied. "I'm just tickety-boo!"

Kurama continued moving towards her, something about the look in his eye unsettling her. She backed up one step for every step he took towards her, but shortly found her back hitting the wall.

"Are you afraid of me, Botan?" he asked as the gap between them began to narrow.

"Oh, no, not at all!" she lied. "I know that it's still you, Kurama!"

She laughed nervously, but fell instantly silent when one of Kurama's hands hit the wall behind her head. He was standing over her, leaning into her, and the gap between them was so slight she could feel the warmth of his body through her clothes.

"H-how are you feeling?" she asked. "I'm s-surprised that the f-fruit even worked! I-it looked so silly!"

"Oh it's working," he replied, reaching his other hand out towards her.

Botan tried to move away from him but with her back against the wall there was nowhere for her to go.

"Would you like to feel it?"

Botan felt the blood drain from her face.

"Wh-what?" she squeaked.

"Would you like to feel it?" he said again.

"F-feel what?" she asked.

He smiled and she suddenly regretted asking. She felt her face growing hot as the blood rushed back into it, and she was torn between wanting to look away and being too afraid to break eye contact with Youko Kurama.

"My hair. I think you'll like it."

Botan screwed up her face in disbelief, but Kurama played the fingers of his free hand through his hair as though to illustrate his point.

"Ah… Okay…"

She slowly lifted one hand, noticing as her fingers came into her line of sight that they were shaking. She was not sure if she was shaking from fear or outrage, but decided that she ought to just comply with Kurama's request: she could feel the increase in his power radiating off of him, and she did not want to anger him in case the fruit had made him forget himself entirely as he had warned it might. But as she touched her fingertips to his hair she forgot all about his strange behaviour.

"Oh that's lovely, isn't it?" she said, gathering up a handful of his long silver hair and stroking her hand down the length of it. "It's so soft and silky! What sort of conditioner do you use? I bet you have to take extra special care of hair this lovely. You probably have to wash it in the purest spring water, don't you? I bet you have to pop up a mountainside and dip it in a spring and flick it about the place a bit, don't you?"

"What?" he grunted.

"Oh, uh, I mean, it feels so nice against my skin!"

Kurama smirked at her, but she failed to see what had amused him.

"You like how soft it is?" he asked.

"Yes, it's lovely!" she replied. "But I don't think the texture of your hair is actually going to help you fight, I think that maybe you should concentrate on–"

"Touch my ears."

"Do what now?"

"Touch my ears. They're even softer than my hair."

"Your… Ears?"

Kurama bent his knees and bowed his head a little, bringing his ears easily into Botan's reach.

"I-I don't know about that…" she said nervously, one of her heels thumping painfully against the wall behind her as instinct tried to move her away from him again. "It's seems just a tad kinky…"

"Touch them," he flatly replied.

"Oh, well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to just… Have a little fumble…"

Kurama made a noise that sounded like he was suppressing laughter, but Botan reached her hands out to his ears regardless, cautiously pinching at the tips.

"Oh my…" she said quietly, sliding her fingers down the length of his ears. "That is just divine, isn't it?"

She rubbed her fingers around the edges of his ears, surprised and delighted to feel how velvety and cool they were to the touch. They were unusually soft and pliant for being part of such a powerful being, and touching them was actually quite addictive. Botan then realised that she was progressively squeezing harder on his ears and she quickly released them, retracting her hands.

"Sorry," she muttered awkwardly.

"Don't stop," he said, without moving his head.

She quirked an eyebrow at the top of his head curiously.

"No…" she said slowly. "I think maybe you might just be enjoying it just a little bit too much… Or maybe I'm enjoying it a little bit too much…"

Kurama slowly lifted his head, and the look on his face instantly made Botan blush. He gently lifted a lock of her hair in his free hand, rubbing his thumb against it with a smile.

"Your hair is very soft too, Botan," he said.

"Oh but it's nothing like yours!" she laughed nervously.

She could feel herself sweating, and again one of her heels clattered against the wall.

"Maybe you should try testing our your powers with some plants?" she suggested. "You know, just to make sure that transformation has worked properly!"

"Yes, I could try to use my powers to charm," he replied.

"T-to charm?" Botan muttered.

"Yes," he replied. "I charm flowers… Botan is a type of flower, isn't she?"

Botan tensed, completely speechless and barely breathing. Suddenly she knew exactly what that look in Kurama's eyes was, and it was even more frightening than facing a violent Kurama.

"I think my powers are working just fine…"

Botan screamed as he leaned closer to her, and she did the only thing that she could under the circumstances: she slid down the wall out of his reach, only stopping when the side of her head jarred against the section of hair Kurama was still holding. He released her and stepped back, frowning down at her curiously, and she quickly took advantage of the gap he created by scurrying away from the wall.

She stumbled around to face him, holding up her hands to stop him from approaching her again.

"Now just stay you back, mister!" she warned him.

He tilted his head slightly as though confused by her words, and as she considered the situation more carefully, she could understand his confusion: how could she even hope to stop him if he did not stay back as she had asked?

"Please stay back," she added.

"I think you've misunderstood me," he said quietly.

Botan lowered her hands, the slightly forlorn tone of Kurama's voice making her suddenly feel very sorry for him and extremely guilty for snapping at him.

"The Fruit of Previous Life that I grew brought out a violent side of my character, but this fruit, your fruit, has brought about a gentleness," he said.

"M-My fruit… I-it's not "my" fruit," Botan pointed out. "I just happened to… Grow it…"

"You did this to me, Botan," he added, meeting her eyes with an unreadable look.

"I'm sorry," she quickly apologised. "I didn't mean to!"

"You have turned me into a gentle being, I don't think this is any use for battle. I have no desire to fight. I feel a passion, but it's not one that can be directed towards conflict."

"Oh… Well, I… Wait, what was that about passion?"

Kurama smiled and began slowly advancing towards Botan. Not liking the look on his face she turned and started to run away, aiming herself for the bathroom, where she intended to lock herself away from him: but before she could even leave the living room Hana leapt into her path and she was force to stop short before she stood on the persistent plant.

"Oopsie!" she said. "You should be careful where you walk, Hana!"

The plant appeared to be looking up as she spoke to it, but Botan could not help but notice that its head was pointed at something above and beyond her left shoulder. Botan started to turn her head to see what the plant was looking at, but stopped short as a shadow fell over her.

"I think she likes you," Kurama's voice whispered into her ear.

Botan stiffened, surprised that he was so close and more than a little concerned by the thought that she was stuck in a small apartment with him in that body and frame of mind for the next fifteen minutes.

"I think she prefers you," she said, crouching down and grabbing up Hana.

Botan spun around and pushed the plant into Kurama's chest before running for the door. She still had a key for the front door, maybe if she got out of the apartment she could lock him in by himself, she decided. To her relief, Kurama did not seem to follow her, and she even made it past the picture of the Arctic fox without jumping out of her skin. With a small smile of relief she reached a hand towards the door-handle, stopping mere inches short of her goal as a voice called out, instantly sending her into a panic again.

"Shuichi? Are you in there?"

"Oh no!" Botan hissed under her breath.

It was one of the girls who had stopped them on the stairwell: now there was no way Botan could leave the apartment, as opening the door might allow Kurama's neighbours a glimpse of Hana or Youko Kurama himself.

"Shuichi?" the girl called. "If you're too shy to come to our party, I don't mind coming in there with you!"

Botan looked back over her shoulder, whimpering pitifully as she saw Kurama leaning into the hallway, Hana lounging in the crook of his arm like a sleepy baby. She turned back to the door, tensing as the girl beyond it knocked on it, each bang echoing around Botan's head painfully.

"Oh dear…" she muttered. "I should have just told Lord Koenma about The Stolen Moment, I'm sure it couldn't possibly have been as bad as this…"

* * *

"I win!" George cheered.

"You crafty bastard!" Yusuke said with a smile. "You've got one hell of a poker face!"

Yusuke happily let George gather up his winnings, but Koenma looked less than pleased.

"Technically speaking, that win was mine," he said quietly.

"Oh don't start that crap again," Yusuke groaned. "You're such a sore loser!"

"But the ogre works for me!" Koenma argued. "And that makes his winnings my–"

Koenma stopped short as a beeping sound began to permeate the air.

"It's not mine," Yusuke told him.

Koenma came to his senses again, reaching into his pocket to recover his communicator.

"Oh, hello Ayame!" he said cheerfully as the dark-haired ferry girl appeared in front of him. "How are you?"

"Not good I'm afraid Sir," she solemnly replied.

"Oh?" he responded, his smile fading. "But how can you possibly be sad when you're talking to this beautiful face?"

"…Sir, I have something very disturbing to report."

"…Go on…"

"It's about Botan, Sir."

"Botan?"

"Yes Sir. Is she with you?"

"No, I gave her some time off."

"Then I might already be too late."

"What are you talking about, Ayame?"

"Lord Koenma, I believe Botan is planning to do something quite terrible."

Koenma looked over the communicator at Yusuke, who looked as surprised as he felt. He turned to George, who shrugged, his eyes large and lost.

"Are you sure?" he asked, turning back to his communicator. "I can't imagine Botan ever doing anything terrible!"

"Well you might change your mind after you hear what she had to say to me earlier today."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Drama, drama, drama! And some melodrama for good measure! Youko gets increasingly out of hand and Botan finds herself in a compromising position with him, Koenma over-reacts to what Ayame has to tell him and he finally finds out the truth about Botan's love interest! Hiei sees and hears a few things that make him have more unexplained feelings and it's simply all too much for Botan. **Chapter 29: The Feeling**

 **A/N:** The name Hana means favourite or flower. Is Hana an OC/Mary Sue?! I thought about this only after I had written a few chapters with her in them! I don't think so since she has no lines and none of the original characters fall in love with her… Though she is crucial to the plot, so…?


	29. The Feeling

**A/N:** **Melodrama warning…**

 **For the benefit of the alternate Botan/Kurama ending, this is where the story would diverge – the alternate ending will start with a modified version of this chapter and fork off from there.**

 **Recap:** Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke advanced through the second round of the tournament, Botan asked Ayame for advice and Botan went to Kurama's apartment, where she met his keen female neighbours, his unorthodox pet plant Hana and she created a Fruit of Previous Life that had some very unusual side effects on Kurama.

* * *

 **Chapter 29: The Feeling**

"Shuichi!"

Botan balled her fists in frustration.

"Shuichi isn't here!"

Botan's jaw dropped at the sound of Kurama's voice behind her.

"Who are you?" the girl called back through the door.

Botan spun around, finding Kurama moving towards her. She quickly pressed the palm of one hand over his mouth to stop him saying any more. She felt his lips smile against her hand, and she shook her head urgently.

"Stop that!" she whispered. "How will you explain yourself later? They'll think you're hiding a girlfriend and a boyfriend in here!"

Botan slowly slid her hand from Kurama's mouth, feeling no less reassured when she saw that he was still smiling at her.

"There's only one girl out there," he whispered to her. "And one girl in here. That's two girls. I have two hands…"

Botan gasped in horror, but Kurama's smile widened.

"Hey, what's going on up here?" a second girl asked from outside the door.

Kurama arched his eyebrows, holding up three fingers. Botan shook her head again, stepping towards him. His smile widened again and she quickly scowled at him.

"Get away from the door!" she urged. "If they hear us, who knows what they'll think!"

When Kurama did not move Botan sighed and reluctantly put her hands on his chest, pushing him back as she walked forwards. Despite the fact that he could easily resist her, he staggered back, allowing her to push him all the way back into the bedroom. She quickly shut the door behind herself and pressed a finger to her lips to warn him to keep quiet. He shrugged and moved over to the tree she had grown, lifting up one bough and poking at a near-ripe fruit hanging there.

"I think we should kill this tree!" Botan hissed. "Look what it's done to you! It's turned you into a… A…"

"It's turned me into my full demon form," he replied, turning to her innocently. "The experiment was a success. And your little peach tasted delicious."

"It's not a peach!" Botan snapped. "It's an evil fruit! And besides, it looks more like a pear."

"I confess, I was just using a coy euphemism," he replied. "I thought it might make you blush."

Botan started to blush then, though only because he had just said that he wanted her to and that alone was embarrassing.

"I-I don't understand…" she stuttered nervously.

"Really?" he asked.

Botan really did not understand where the euphemism lay in his previous speech or what it was meant to represent, but she did understand the look in his eyes then.

"Oh goodness…" she muttered, touching her hands to her face. "My fruit has turned you into a foxy nymphomaniac!"

"Botan!" he gasped. "That's no sort of language for a ferry girl to be using!"

Botan started to blush again.

"Your fruit has merely turned me into a gentle fox cub," he said.

Botan started to relax, but when she saw the glint return to Kurama's golden eyes she quickly panicked again.

"You should relax," he said.

Botan shook her head, watching curiously as he lowered Hana to the ground, reaching his other hand into his hair to retrieve a seed.

"You keep everything in your hair, don't you?" she asked, laughing nervously. "I suppose that's why you wear it long. More room to hide things, right?"

Kurama smiled, tossing the seed over Botan's shoulder. She looked back curiously, wondering what he was doing, and she did not have to wait long for an answer: the seed exploded in a burst of green that quickly grew into a tall, thick stem before opening out into a large white flower. Botan turned to Kurama for an explanation, yelping as she found him once more advancing on her. She stumbled back, falling onto the petals of the flower, which were surprisingly comfortable to lie on. She momentarily enjoyed the springiness of lying on the flower before coming to her senses again as she saw Kurama reaching for her.

"Stay back!" she cried, rolling over and landing hard on the ground.

"Shouting and thumping about like that will only get the attention of my neighbours," he commented as she scrambled to her feet.

"You're doing this to me!" she argued.

"You did this to me," he replied, waving a hand at his current form.

"No," she said, vigorously shaking her head. "You did that to yourself, mister sexy pants!"

Kurama paused, looking slightly taken aback, a look that was entirely out of place on his full demon face.

"Not that I mean that I think you are sexy," Botan hurriedly added, her face growing hot. "J-Just that you're acting very sexy – no, wait, not that, I mean you're behaving – I mean–"

"It's alright, I know exactly what you mean."

"Y-you do?"

Kurama slowly walked over to stand in front of Botan, smiling gently. She gulped audibly, silently noting that he was not only infinitely more powerful in his full demon form but he was also substantially bigger: his shoulders were almost as broad as the doorway into the room and he was easily as tall as the door itself.

"But you're wrong," he said quietly. "With your fruit, I am but a gentle little fox cub."

He leaned towards her and Botan leaned back, almost losing her balance: this was becoming ridiculous.

* * *

"I'm listening," Koenma said, his face stern.

"Sir, Botan called me earlier today to ask for my advice on something," Ayame continued. "She said that she is in love with a demon, and she wanted to know if she ought to use her human body to consummate her relationship with him."

Koenma froze, barely believing what he was hearing.

"She was under the impression that it was the right thing to do," Ayame added. "If she's not with you now, I can only assume that she is following through with her plan."

"Botan?" Koenma eventually managed. "Botan is…? But she's so… She's such a…"

Koenma turned to George, finding that the ogre looked as shocked and concerned as he was. He then turned to Yusuke, feeling suddenly far worse when he saw that Yusuke did not look shocked or concerned: in fact, he looked guilty, like he was hiding something.

"I asked Hiei to wipe her memories of this," Koenma said sternly, looking down at Ayame again. "Obviously he has failed me, though I can't think why."

"You really can't think why?" Yusuke muttered.

"What?" Koenma echoed, his head snapping up and his eyes fixing onto Yusuke.

Yusuke grinned and shrugged his shoulders, but Koenma was not about to let his last comment slip.

"Do you know where Botan might be, Ayame?" Koenma asked the ferry girl.

"Unfortunately no, Sir," she replied. "But you should be able to locate her if she has her communicator with her."

"Alright, thanks for calling Ayame."

Koenma pushed a button to end the call and another to locate Botan's communicator. As he waited for a reply he lifted his eyes to Yusuke again.

"You better tell me everything you know, Yusuke," he warned.

"It's just…" Yusuke began. "Is it really such a big deal if Botan has a silly little crush on a demon? And before you answer that, remember that I'm a demon too!"

Koenma slowly narrowed his eyes.

"You're different," he coldly replied. "You can control your power. A demon unaccustomed to the weakness and vulnerability of a human body could literally tear Botan apart. Do you want that to happen?"

"No, of course not! Calm down!"

Koenma looked down at his communicator again, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"She's in the living world," he said. "Kyoto city."

"Why would she be there?" Yusuke asked. "That doesn't make any sense! I thought she was going to Genkai's place to see Yukina?"

"Obviously not," Koenma said, rising to his feet. "Yusuke, call Puu, I need to get to Kyoto city, and fast."

Yusuke stayed seated, looking up at Koenma.

"Now, Yusuke," Koenma repeated in a low voice.

"Are you sure you want to go running after them?" Yusuke asked. "It could be dangerous… I'll come with you."

Yusuke stood up but Koenma shook his head.

"I'm going alone," he said firmly. "Call Puu. Now!"

"Okay, keep your training pants on!" Yusuke said.

He sighed, stepping out from behind the table. Koenma followed him out of the restaurant and the hotel, out onto the street. Yusuke waved an arm to a shadow perching on a low-level building across the street before turning to Koenma and eying him over worriedly.

"I'm coming with you," he said.

"No you are not," Koenma said firmly.

"Well you can't exactly stop me," Yusuke pointed out. "And if you pick a fight with… I can't let that happen."

"This isn't your problem, Yusuke," Koenma stubbornly replied. "And you should be resting after your fight earlier today, you're still weakened."

"Yeah, maybe, but I'm still a hell of a lot stronger than you're beany little ass!"

Puu landed softly in front of them and Koenma quickly leapt onto the bird's back.

"This is really stupid!" Yusuke shouted up to him.

"It would be stupid to let it happen," Koenma snapped back.

Yusuke sighed, shaking his head.

"Fine then," he said. "Puu, take Koenma to Kyoto city."

Puu let out a cry and spread his wings.

"Just don't do anything totally stupid, Koenma!" Yusuke yelled as Puu started to take off.

"I'm going to do whatever I have to," Koenma yelled back.

"Idiot…" Yusuke grumbled.

Yusuke roughly pushed one hand through his hair, turning around to see George loitering by the hotel steps, looking terrified. Yusuke turned back to watch Puu fade into the night sky, silently hoping that Hiei did not try to murder Koenma for interfering: but it was difficult to hold onto that hope when deep down he had a bad feeling that Hiei would lose his temper and end up in spirit world prison before the night was through.

"What's his problem?"

"Eh?" Yusuke echoed. "Oh, you mean Koenma? He's gone to the living world to look for Botan."

"Oh? Why?"

"She told Ayame she's in love with a demon, and she's gone off to have sex with him, and Ayame told Koenma and now he's furious. He's going to try to stop it happening, but he doesn't stand a chance! I mean we all know how aggressive Hiei is – hey, wait, Hiei?"

Yusuke's head snapped downwards and his eyes locked onto the diminutive fire demon stood at his side, glaring up at him.

"But how can you be here?" Yusuke asked. "If Botan's in the living world with her boyfriend, shouldn't you be there too? It's you she's in love with, isn't it?"

Hiei's face slowly darkened and he started to bare his teeth, the look enough to make Yusuke recoil from him. He then reached up a hand and snatched off his bandana, his jagan opening abruptly and glowing blue against the darkness, his own eyes closing. Yusuke watched curiously as Hiei's angered scowl slowly melted into a look that almost seemed like Hiei was in pain somehow. Just as the look was starting to seriously worry Yusuke Hiei opened his own eyes again and regained his angered sneer. He tore off his coat and threw it down before taking off at full speed, vanishing from sight before Yusuke could even think to call after him.

Yusuke sighed, watching as George came over to his side and picked up Hiei's coat. Both Yusuke and George started it alarm when they saw that Hiei's sword was lying on the ground beneath his coat.

"Why would he leave that behind?" Yusuke asked. "And where is he going? What did he see with that freaky eye of his? What the hell is going on around here? Why am I the Kuwabara of this half of the story?"

George grinned nervously and shrugged in reply.

* * *

"Grr!" Botan growled, clutching tightly at the frame of the picture.

Kurama gave her a withering look but she persisted regardless, shaking the image of the hologrammatic fox in front of herself.

"Don't come any closer!" she wailed. "Grr!"

"Hey, Hana?" a voice called from beyond the front door. "Is that you?"

Botan gasped, stepping away from the door only to clatter into Kurama. He took hold of the picture, pulling it from her hands and flinging it aside.

"I've never met a flower so resistant to my charms before," he said.

"Did you hear that?" a muffled voice said from the other side of the front door. "There's another guy in there!"

"Yeah, and he's got a really sexy voice!" another voice said.

Botan gasped, waving her hands frantically in front of Kurama's face.

"You have to stop talking!" she hissed quietly. "Please! For your own sake!"

"I can think of a way you could silence these lips," he replied.

"Oh?" she responded.

"Kiss me."

"Do what?"

Botan shrieked out her last words, causing more outcry from the girl loitering outside the apartment, who began banging on the door again and calling for Shuichi.

"It's one way to make sure I stop talking," Kurama loudly replied.

When Botan heard one of the girls outside comment on having heard "that other man with the sexy voice" again she panicked.

"Kurama, please!" she whispered, taking his face in her hands. "Please!"

"Alright then, since you asked so nicely," he whispered back.

"Oh thank you," Botan sighed. "I was so–"

She was cut off halfway through her reply by Kurama's lips pushing against hers. She stiffened, at first too shocked to fully register what was happening. She felt his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place with a grip that was gentle but firm, and despite knowing that she could easily break their contact as her hands were still on his face, she instead let him kiss her, her eyes slowly drifting closed.

It was, she thought silently, quite an experience. She had never thought what it might be like to kiss Kurama, least of all to kiss him in his full demon form, but she supposed that if she had been inclined to imagine it, she would have expected Youko Kurama to kiss roughly and forcefully like Hiei did. However, what was happening to her was anything but rough and forceful. Kurama's lips were fluttering against hers so softly they felt like butterfly wings, the contact so light and sensitive Botan could feel herself pushing her lips against his in a need for more pressure.

It was not so much a kiss as it as a series of light kisses that were gradually becoming more intense. It was almost frustratingly slow and gentle for Botan – which was a thought that would have shocked her before she had kissed Hiei – and in an attempt to force Kurama into firmer contact she slid her hands forwards, her fingers slipping past his ears and into his hair. He made a small noise of curiosity at her action, but his lips did mould into hers after that, and shortly afterwards the kiss began to become more passionate.

Botan moved her hands further into Kurama's hair, silently wondering why it did not feel so silky and fine as it had before. And it was also strange that she had felt human ears on the sides of his head, she thought to herself. Did he have human and fox ears? Four ears? Well, she supposed, she had never really had the chance to look before.

Suddenly Kurama grunted and gripped his hands tighter into Botan's shoulders. Without breaking their kiss she opened her eyes to look at him questioningly, her first thought being that she now understood why his hair felt courser and why she had felt human ears on the sides of his head: he was back in his human form, as the effects of the Fruit of Previous Life had apparently run out. Botan's second thought was that she was passionately kissing Kurama and he was staring down at her with the most horrified look she had ever seen him wear.

Slowly Botan withdrew from him, looking up at him warily.

"Did you feel that?" he asked, turning his head slightly towards the living room.

"Feel what?" she echoed. "Your tongue in my mouth?"

"It felt like an energy pulse, like a psychic signal reaching into the room," he replied, frowning slightly.

Botan narrowed her eyes at him.

"You demons are all the same…" she grumbled. "You just kiss a girl and then act like it means nothing…"

"I sense that we may not have much time left," he said, turning from her.

Botan sighed indignantly as he walked off, disappearing into the bedroom. Once he was out of sight she touched a hand to her lips, still surprised that a kiss could be so different from one person to another. Kurama had been very tender and inviting and more like how she supposed she had once imagined kisses to be, but for some reason it had not had the same lasting impact on her that Hiei's kisses did. She was so lost in thought, she barely noticed Kurama leave the bedroom with a fruit in each hand. At the sound of him juicing the fruits into separate glasses Botan finally awoke from her reverie and sprinted through to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"I have to finish my experimentation," he calmly replied, taking out a third glass to stand alongside the two he had already filled.

"With more fruit?" she echoed, pointing at the glasses. "Well I don't want to be here when you do that again! You turned into a very naughty fox, and you kissed me without my permission!"

Kurama poured small amounts of the two fruits into the third glass, swirling them around to combine them.

"For the record, you were the one who put your tongue in my mouth," he said quietly, watching the two juices combining as he spoke.

Botan gasped in dismay, but Kurama ignored her response, drinking back his cocktail.

"Now wait just a minute!" she said hurriedly. "Are you sure it's wise to combine those two?"

"Well, one made me violent," he replied. "And the other made me–"

"A pervert."

"–overly calm. So hopefully the two together will bring about a happy medium between the two."

"One makes you violent, the other makes you a pervert. So the two together will make you a violent pervert…"

Botan began to sweat. She swallowed hard as she once more felt the room fill with the powerful aura of Kurama in his full demon form. She slowly turned her head to look at him, tensing as she saw him smile when their eyes met.

"Oh my…" she muttered.

* * *

Hiei paced up and down a small section of pavement across the street from Kurama's apartment block. He was unsure what to do next. When he had used his jagan to check on Botan from demon world he had seen her kissing that traitorous red-haired fox bastard, and he had immediately felt three different emotions, one of which he had enjoyed because he completely understood it: he was angry. He was angry with her for letting Kurama touch her but he was even more enraged with Kurama for moving in on his territory.

But, in the time it had taken Hiei to run from the hotel in demon world to Kurama's apartment in the human world, he had actually done some thinking, and he had remembered that Kurama had warned him about this several times already. Kurama had said to him that he would take Botan for himself if Hiei only wanted one night with her, and of course Hiei had not claimed to want any more than just that. He still did not want any more than one night with her, but as he had yet to have that one night, Kurama had no business getting involved and wooing the woman with his enchanted flowers and his effeminate mannerisms.

And the more Hiei had thought about Kurama betraying their alliance by making a move on Botan, the more Hiei started to realise just how ridiculous the situation actually was: Kurama, unlike Hiei, did believe in all that love and romance crap. He had already betrayed Hiei's trust once because of his love for a woman – when he had basically used Hiei to get the Forlorn Hope to save his human mother's life – and now he was doing it again. And Botan was probably lapping it up, since she was longing for all that nonsense.

It was about then that Hiei had reached the street Kurama lived on, and he had realised that he did not actually know why he had gone there or what he expected to do. Was he going to break into Kurama's apartment? And what then? He was angry at both Kurama and Botan, but what exactly was he going to say to them if he did walk in on them kissing – or worse?

As he paced up and down outside the apartment block, Hiei began to remember something else that infuriating fox had said to him: "have your one night, after that it's not your concern what she does". Obviously that was Kurama's warning to him. Kurama had an infuriating habit of doing that, Hiei thought to himself. He would make cryptic and vague statements that would later prove to be quite portentous and earn him the right to wear that smug, almost-smile of self-satisfaction at once more being proved right about something. He was always thinking ahead, always scheming, always planning and always right.

Kurama was always right about everything, Hiei thought angrily, absolutely everything.

Kurama was right that Hiei wanted to keep Botan for himself.

Though not it that pathetic, life-partner, love and romance kind of way. Hiei just wanted to be the only one to ever unwrap that little treasure and know the beauty that lay within. He did not want to share her with anyone, least of all someone who might lure her away from him with flowery talk and sappy gestures.

Hiei was starting to understand what one of those other feelings he was having was. He already understood the anger, which had been the last feeling that had hit him when he had seen Kurama kissing his woman, but he was starting to realise that the second feeling he had felt was jealousy. And that was something that was both new and unexpected.

* * *

"This is perfect," Kurama said quietly. "I didn't think I would ever find something so right so quickly. Exactly half of my own variety of the fruit with exactly half of yours Botan makes a perfect formula."

Botan sighed in relief, dropping onto the futon and wiping the sweat from her brow. She noticed Hana loitering by her feet and she grabbed the little plant up onto her arms, hugging her in relief: to her surprise, Hana did not try to wriggle from her grasp like she had from human-form Kurama's arms.

"I will use this formula a few times more over the coming days, mainly to help harvest the seeds I need from Hana," Kurama added.

"Do I have to stay with you while you do that?" Botan asked.

"No, of course not," he replied.

Botan sighed again, resting one cheek against the top of Hana's head.

"You look exhausted," Kurama commented casually. "I'm the one who has undergone two past life regressions in the last half an hour, but to an outsider, you look the more worn out."

"I gave a lot of spirit energy to sprout those fruits," Botan replied. "And I expended a lot of energy running away from Pervo Kurama."

Kurama gave Botan a dark look and she squeezed Hana tighter apprehensively. She laughed nervously, relieved when he turned his attention to the Arctic fox picture he had previously cast aside. He picked it up and left the room, presumably to hang it back into its usual place in the hallway by the door, and again Botan sighed. She really was exhausted, and would be glad to get back to her hotel room and into bed that night.

"Botan, I think I owe you an apology."

Botan lifted her head, turning to see Kurama returning to the room, once more in his human form.

"Oh?" she said.

"Yes," he said. "I know I acted terribly after that first transformation, I feel bad that you had to suffer that, you deserve better."

"Oh, well, that's okay though," she assured him. "I understand that it wasn't your fault."

Kurama nodded tightly, a strange look passing over his features.

"I fear you may not feel that way for long," he said quietly. "And I hope you are not as tired as you look, because I don't think the excitement of this night is over just yet."

"…What do you mean?"

"Well, unless I'm very much mistaken, I can sense three familiar energy signals nearby."

"Three? Ooh, is it Kuwabara, Yukina and… Um…"

Kurama shook his head.

"It's Puu and Koenma," he said. "And Hiei."

"Puu, Lord Koenma and Hiei?" Botan echoed. "That's a very odd combination! Why would those three come here together? Why would any of those three come here now?"

"I don't know, but we can't let Koenma come up here," Kurama reminded her. "If he so much as suspects what we've done here, the consequences would be very grave indeed."

"Oh, of course! Oh dear!"

Botan hurriedly got to her feet and started for the front door of the apartment, only stopping when Kurama grabbed one of her arms and turned her around to face him.

"As delightful as it is to see that you have made a new friend, I'm rather afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave Hana here," he said carefully, nodding his head at the piranha plant still cradled in Botan's arms.

"Oh!" she said, looking down at Hana herself. "I forgot! She does seem to quite like me now, doesn't she? Can I keep her?"

"Botan, Hana is a very rare and very valuable plant, both in financial terms and in terms of her potential to produce seeds," he replied. "Please don't humanise her."

"You humanised her first!" Botan argued. "You gave her a name, you cook for her, you–"

"Botan, please, we don't have time to argue about this right now."

"Can I have her after the demon world tournament? Or can you keep her at Genkai's? Yukina would look after her, and that way I could always see her!"

Kurama tensed slightly before reluctantly nodding his head.

"I'll think about it," he said, grabbing the plant and pulling it from Botan's arms.

Botan pouted as Hana left her arms, only breaking from her sadness as Kurama took hold of her shoulders and turned her towards the door, pushing her out of the apartment ahead of him. He locked the door behind them and slid the key into his hair, which Botan started to comment on, only to stop when she suddenly found herself facing three curious girls in various stages of intoxication.

"Shuichi and Hana!" one of the girls cried, opening out her arms.

Kurama groaned very quietly, but forced a polite smile for the girls.

"Hey Hana, what's with the traditional dress?" another girl asked, tugging at one sleeve of Botan's kimono.

"Oh, we were at a culture festival," Botan explained.

"And what's with your hair?" the third girl asked.

"And are those contacts?" the first girl asked, leaning towards Botan's face. "Weird, are they pink?"

"Excuse us, ladies, we have to be going," Kurama said, putting his hands on Botan's shoulders again and pushing her forwards.

"Are you coming down to our party?" one girl asked.

"Perhaps some other time," Kurama replied.

"You always say that, Shuichi!"

"Oh my, they are quite forceful, aren't they?" Botan whispered to Kurama.

"You have no idea," he whispered back.

Botan giggled, but she could not be sure if Kurama was joking or not. As they finally reached the main door Botan began to remember why they were leaving, and panic began to grip her.

"Kurama?" she asked as they stepped outside.

"Yes?" he responded.

"If Koenma really is coming here, what will we tell him?" she asked. "How will we explain us both being here like this?"

Botan looked up at Kurama expectantly, her concern growing as she saw his eyes wander from hers to something beyond her shoulder.

"Good question, Botan," she heard Koenma's voice say behind her. "How will you explain this to me?"

Botan slowly turned around, finding Koenma, in his adult form, standing with his arms folded over his chest and a stern look darkening his eyes.

"Lord Koenma…" she said softly.

"Well Botan, I'm disappointed, but I'm not entirely surprised," he said stiffly. "I never expected you to fall in love with a demon, least of all one of the spirit detective team, and I had hoped that Hiei would have done what I asked of him, though apparently he let me down."

Botan frowned curiously, too frightened to ask Koenma what he meant but desperate to know anyway.

"I asked him to wipe your memories of the one you were in love with," Koenma added, as though sensing her curiosity. "And I realise now that was probably a cruel thing to do anyway. And I can see now why he disobeyed: his loyalty to Kurama is obvious greater than his loyalty to me… Who am I kidding, Hiei has no loyalty to me, but he does stand by his good friend Kurama."

Botan glanced at Kurama, silently wondering why he did not look as confused and shocked as she felt.

"I can't say that I'm ecstatic about this, but it's not nearly as bad as I had first suspected," Koenma continued. "Botan you are a gentle soul, but I know at least that Kurama will take good care of you. I couldn't have let you go to anyone else: not even Yusuke."

Botan started to feel cold inside her chest: Koenma thought that the demon she had confessed to having feelings for was Kurama, and that just complicated things even more.

"It is actually a relief," he said slowly. "I was expecting to find you here with Hiei."

Botan gasped involuntarily and Koenma started to laugh.

"I know!" he said. "How ridiculous is that? You and Hiei!"

Botan glanced at Kurama again to gauge his reaction to what her boss was saying, but he still looked decidedly neutral, and so she did the only thing that seemed right under the circumstances.

"Me and Hiei?" she said. "Oh Sir, that really is ridiculous!"

She forced laughter to continue the lie, though she was more than a little disappointed to see Koenma wipe a tear from one eye from the force of his own hysterics: surely the thought of her and Hiei as a couple was not that ludicrous?

"I know!" Koenma continued. "Can you imagine it?"

Botan stopped laughing.

"I mean, they say that opposites attract, but Botan and Hiei?" Koenma said.

Botan silently hoped that Koenma would soon stop, because she was starting to get upset at just how laughable he thought the situation was.

"Don't you think that it's funny, Kurama?" he asked, turning to Kurama. "I thought Botan was in love with Hiei! Can you imagine those two together? First of all, he never talks and she never shuts up! He's a cold-hearted fighter and she's a soft-headed philanthropist!"

Botan clenched her jaws tightly together and tried to stay focussed on the positive aspects of what was happening: at least Koenma had not discovered the trees in Kurama's apartment or her part in their existence and at least he was not going to punish her for lying to him about her whereabouts that night.

"He's smart and sarcastic and she's air-headed and literal!" Koenma continued.

"Yes, very amusing," Kurama said tightly. "I had never given it any thought before, but apparently you have given it plenty."

"But now that I know it isn't true, I can see how funny it is that I ever suspected it was!" Koenma replied. "He's focussed and ambitious and she's ditzy and laid-back!"

"I think we get your point," Kurama said, his tone slightly firmer.

"He's malevolent, she's benevolent."

"Yes, they are opposites, we understand."

"He's decisive, she's indecisive."

"We get the point."

"He's strong, she's weak."

Kurama twitched slightly as though he was starting to become as irritated by Koenma's words as Botan was hurt by them.

"He's tough, she's-"

"Sir, please!" Botan snapped.

Koenma stopped, staring at Botan with wide-eyes of surprise at her sudden outburst. She tried to continue, but was too scared to talk as she began to feel tears threatening. Apparently sensing her suffering, Kurama stepped forwards in her place.

"I think your words are a little inappropriate, Lord Koenma," he said. "You should consider Botan's feelings before you talk so candidly."

Koenma frowned slightly at Kurama before turning his attention to Botan, who was only able to look him in the eye for a matter of seconds before she had to turn her head away for fear of breaking down in front of him.

"Oh…" he said softly. "I'm sorry, Botan. You're right of course, Kurama. Here I am talking about Hiei and Botan and Botan is with you. That was very insensitive of me. Botan if it makes you feel any better I really don't have a problem with you loving Kurama. He's sensible and sensitive and I trust him not to hurt you like Hiei would have."

Botan pinched at the bridge of her nose, hoping to stop tears from coming to her eyes. It was like every time Koenma opened his mouth he said something that made her feel ten times worse. Every time she thought she was feeling as low as she possibly could, he said something to make her feel even sadder and more dispirited.

"I'm pleased, really, I am," he continued. "I was so worried about you, Botan! At least now I understand why you've been so distracted lately! And when I think about it, I can see that it was happening right before my own eyes and I just never bothered to notice before! The only thing I don't understand it why you said that the demon you loved did not even know your name – Kurama knows your name!"

Botan sighed quietly and rolled her eyes. If Koenma was not her boss, if he was not the lord of the underworld, she could have been tempted to punch him in the face for being so infuriating.

"I suppose you were just panicking because you didn't want me to know the whole truth," he said. "You thought that I would disapprove. And admittedly, it is unconventional for a ferry girl to have a lover, especially a demon with a reputation as a thief who is currently inhabiting a human body, but I want to see you happy Botan, and as long as this relationship doesn't get in the way of your duties to spirit world then I am happy to give you my blessing."

Botan turned her back on Koenma, silently wishing a random portal would open up and suck her away into another world: spirit world or demon world, either one would do, she was frankly beyond caring.

"Oh look, I made Botan embarrassed talking about her boyfriend!" Koenma sang behind her. "She can't even look me in the eye any more!"

"I see you brought Puu with you," Kurama said.

"What?" Koenma echoed. "No! I mean – I thought Puu was hidden somewhere!"

"Perhaps we should all return to demon world with Puu before anyone else notices him here," Kurama replied. "This is a very busy city, we can't afford to risk anyone seeing him and asking awkward questions or reporting him to the authorities."

"Right," Koenma replied. "Again. Right again, Kurama. Hey Botan, you sure picked a smart guy to date!"

Botan wondered if she could outrun Puu on her oar. An idea about taking off and leaving Koenma, Kurama and Puu behind to return to demon world alone was formulating in her mind. She might even go back to the ice village, she thought. She was not meant to go back there for three more days yet, but maybe Rui's offer of a place to stay was still open, and she could pass the next three days around people who minded their own business and had absolutely no faith in love, romance or men, and so would not talk about any of them around her.

"Let's just go, shall we?" Kurama said.

"Okay," Koenma agreed. "Come on, Botan!"

Botan hesitated to turn around, still undecided about whether or not she could face sharing the journey back to the hotel in demon world on Puu's back with Kurama and Koenma.

"Botan!" Koenma yelled suddenly. "Come on!"

Botan opened her mouth to make an excuse, but when her eyes began to blur with uncried tears she instead just summoned her oar and leapt onto it, streaking up into the sky and ignoring Koenma's calls for her to stop.

Botan flew all the way to the portal and through it to demon world before she started to realise that something was amiss: she had, of course, expended a significant amount of her spirit energy to make the third Tree of Previous Life come to fruit, and she found herself struggling to stay airborne. Thankfully she could see the hotel in the distance, so it was not far to go, but she suspected that she would be walking the last part of her journey there, as she was progressively sinking through the air against her own will.

* * *

"Oh look, I made Botan embarrassed talking about her boyfriend! She can't even look me in the eye any more!"

Hiei had heard enough. He turned and took off, unsure who he was most irate with: the woman, the fox or the baby. At least, he told himself, his suspicions had been confirmed: Kurama had moved in on Botan and taken her for himself. And he had managed to find that out without having to catch them in the act or confront them himself. But still Hiei was not satisfied.

There was still something else bothering him, something he could neither understand nor satiate. As he returned to demon world he tried punching down a few idiots who got in his way, but random acts of violence did not seem to be helping him any, even though, in his previous experience, they were a cure for all ails. Nothing could make that tightness in his chest ease and he could not figure out what it was that he wanted so badly – and he did feel as though he wanted something.

Hiei hurried on through the streets of a city in demon world, only registering where he was when he found that his once-more treacherous feet had brought him to the hotel the others were staying in during the tournament. He managed to stop himself in a backstreet overlooking the main street the hotel was on, and he remained there for several minutes as he debated what to do next.

He really wished his fight that day had been more demanding, as at least that way he would not have so much pent-up energy coursing through his body. That was probably what his lasting problem was, he decided. Just his need for a challenging battle: and thankfully that need would be satisfied in the next round, where he finally had a worthy opponent.

When Hiei finally sighted Yusuke's big blue bird descending from the sky he felt as though he could leave at last. He was unsure why, but the sight of the bird arriving at the hotel gave him a sense of closure on the evening, and even though he was still plagued by an unknown need for something, he felt a little more at ease after seeing the bird.

But unfortunately his ease was short-lived. As the bird landed, Hiei could not help but notice that there were only two bodies on its back, and neither of them were in a pink kimono. Not that it was really his concern where the woman was, but it did arouse his curiosity as to why she had not travelled back with Kurama and the brat. Maybe she had been ordered to go back to spirit world and round up some lost souls, he thought to himself. At least that would keep Kurama's hands off of her for a short while, Hiei thought with a smile.

Not that he cared, of course.

"Where the hell have you all been?" Hiei heard Yusuke yelling. "I thought you went to get Botan back!"

"She wanted to fly back herself," Koenma answered him. "Isn't she here yet?"

"No!" Yusuke replied.

"Well, no point in worrying," Koenma said with a shrug. "She's obviously just not as fast as Puu."

Hiei watched in disbelief as Yusuke, Koenma and Kurama all entered the hotel and the bird took off to roost somewhere. Did none of them care that the ferry girl was out in demon world at night on her own? Not that he cared either, but it was alarming that neither the woman's superior nor her apparent lover cared what happened to her. Surely caring about things like that was something humans and spirits were meant to do.

Hiei turned his back on the hotel and started to walk away, but barely made it to the end of the street before he stopped and found that he could not make his feet take him any further.

He just had to know.

* * *

Botan staggered out of the elevator and started along the corridor towards her room. She was exhausted by then, and she knew that she only had herself to blame: she had squeezed out her last reserves of spirit energy to allow her to fly all the way to the hotel, wasting additional energy by landing at the back of the hotel and entering through the delivery entrance. She had taken the goods elevator up as far as she could before transferring to the regular elevators, keen to avoid Koenma, Kurama, Yusuke and even George for the rest of the night. She just wanted to be alone, and she hoped that her strategy would pay off.

Unfortunately it looked like it would not. As she dragged her feet along the corridor towards her room door she could feel herself getting ever closer to just collapsing and blacking out completely. She had hoped that she would at least make it inside her room before that happened: she was even happy to collapse inside the doorway and sleep there, just so long as she was actually inside the room and away from everyone else.

Botan briefly mused that it was exceptionally anti-social of her to think that way and completely unlike her usual self; but she had not been feeling like her usual self for the longest time. She began clumsily reaching into her sleeves and the folds of her kimono in search of her room key, and as her fingers found something that felt like a key she suddenly tripped over her own ankle, landing face-down in the middle of the hallway floor. She turned her head to look at what her hand had retrieved from her sleeve and smiled at the irony as she saw it was in fact the key to Kurama's apartment.

And the sight of key to Kurama's apartment held between her fingers was the last one Botan saw that night as she promptly blacked out where she lay.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** More epping drama… Hiei is acting and talking strangely (or so Botan thinks), and when Botan returns to the living world, she is promptly reacquainted with another of Kurama's demon plants as well as having a conversation with Kurama that points to troubled times ahead. **Chapter 30: The Dilemma**.

 **A/N:** Finally! This story was originally going to end after about 12 chapters, but I took out an element of chapter 10 and pushed it further back to fit in more story – and the next chapter (chapter 30) would be the original second half of chapter 10, played out slightly differently! (So basically I'm fleetingly returning to the plot in the next chapter!)


	30. The Dilemma

**Recap:** Botan kissed Kurama (or was it the other way around?!), Kurama found a blend of FoPL that worked to transform him into the "ultimate" Youko, Koenma caught Kurama and Botan leaving Kurama's apartment and wrongly assumed that Botan is in love with Kurama, and he gave them his blessing – and all the while Hiei was standing nearby watching and listening like a stalkertastic little emo…

* * *

 **Chapter 30: The Dilemma**

Hiei stood on the roof of the building next to the hotel, looking up at the balcony leading to the room the woman was meant to be in. The lights were out and the curtains were open, and he could not see or sense her presence there. Maybe she had returned to spirit world, he thought. Or maybe she was out in the city somewhere talking to someone about her honey pot like the idiot that she was.

Hiei sighed in frustration, removing his bandana. Kurama was going to have to learn that the woman could not be trusted to look after herself, he thought. He closed his eyes and opened his jagan eye to search for her, shortly finding her in the hotel within spitting distance of her room door. But she was on the wrong side of the door, she was lying on the floor, and she was apparently unconscious.

Hiei opened his eyes. It was likely that someone else would find her or that she might get up and get herself into her room, but it was even more likely that she would lie there all night or that someone with bad intentions would come across her. Hiei had never been one to rely on others, and he supposed that this was just another instance where he would have to take care of matters himself. He scanned the front of the building before finding what he was looking for: a light on in the room two along from the woman's.

Hiei quickly launched himself at the nearest balcony, leaping upwards and across to the balcony two along from the woman's, where he proceeded to slid open the door and walk through the room beyond. There may have been someone in the room watching television and yelling at him, but he did not care to notice, instead continuing out the room door to the hall beyond where he found the woman lying by his feet.

"Hey, wake up!" he said poking his toes at her shoulder.

She did not respond to his touch, though he was strangely unable to put any force behind it. He crouched down at her side and rolled her onto her back, the way her head flopped loosely over telling him that she was not about to wake up any time soon. He reached over to her hand and picked up the key she had been holding, rising to his feet and walking on to her room door. He tried poking the key into the door several times before accepting that it would not fit, and only then realising that it was unlike any key he had ever seen in demon world before.

Closer inspection of the key told Hiei something else he did not like to know: it was a key to Kurama's abode in the living world, and apparently Kurama had become close enough to the woman to entrust her with it. Hiei closed his fist around the key tightly and turned his attention back to the woman, who was still sprawled across the floor where he had left her. He was going to have to find the right key, he thought, as he could be caught breaking down the door. He did not want any more hassle, so he moved back over to the woman's side and reached his hands out towards her before stopping short.

Kimono's did not have pockets, so where was the key?

Hiei growled in frustration, his hands hovering over her chest. He did not like the idea of putting his hands on her when she was not conscious: if she woke up and caught him, how would explain to her what he was doing? She would never accept that he was just trying to help her – he could barely even accept that himself – and she would probably go crying to Kurama. Hiei briefly entertained the idea of picking her up and turning her upside-down to see if the key fell out of her clothing, but as he remembered that she was quite a bit taller than he was, he realised that it would not be so easy a task. The decision of what to do was taking too long for Hiei's limited patience, but he did vaguely remember that the woman liked to hide things up her sleeves, so he quickly pushed one hand up each of her sleeves, hurriedly feeling through the folds of silk for the elusive key.

He began to growl in frustration when he could not find what he sought. Maybe he would just kick the door down and deposit her back in the room; but then there would be no way to secure her in there, and he could not leave her in an unlocked room, since that was barely any better than leaving her lying in the hotel hallway. He should not even be there, he thought to himself, running around looking after spirit world's minions was Yusuke's job, not his.

Hiei was almost too relieved when his fingers eventually brushed against something hard, which he quickly gripped onto and pulled sharply from her sleeve. His movements were so quick and forceful he did not realise that the object he had taken hold of was substantially bigger than a key or that by pulling it so abruptly he was ripping the girl's sleeve until he had already done the damage and found himself holding an object that was sickeningly familiar: it was Yukina's tortoiseshell hair accessory, the sort all the women of the ice village wore. He did not want to even think why the ferry girl had it, but he was more concerned with the sight of it and the thoughts it brought to his mind about his sister: she had been quite sad and apprehensive lately, and a small part of him knew that he was partly to blame for that, since she seemed somehow able to understand any trauma he was suffering, and she was not as capable at dealing with such matters as he was.

Hiei started to reach his free hand up one of the woman's sleeves again, and was glad when he finally recovered her room key. He quickly opened the room door ready to get her inside before once more crouching at her side and pausing to consider how best to get her there. He grabbed her shoulder and gave her one last shake to try to wake her, but still she was unresponsive. Dragging her along the floor was an option, and he was sure that the smooth silk of her kimono would make it a relatively easy option at that, but he supposed he ought to carry her, just in case Koenma happened to walk past and started lecturing him on the wrongs of manhandling a ferry girl.

He quickly gathered her into his arms and stood up, surprised to find that he could not feel much heat coming from her body. She was probably just cold from flying up high, he decided, and he continued to carry her into the room, kicking the door shut behind himself. He took her over to the bed and laid her on it, placing Yukina's ribbon on the nightstand next to her. He turned and started towards the room door again but stopped short of his goal, the sight of the open locks on the door reminding him that he would have no way to lock her in once he left the room, and leaving her in an unlocked room when she was in such a deep sleep would be a phenomenally bad idea.

Hiei slowly began locking the door. It was alright, he told himself, he would just lock the room door from the inside, and then he could leave from the balcony. Leaving the balcony door unlocked would be alright, since it was extremely unlikely that anyone would get into her room that way. Satisfied that he had done as much as he could for her and saved himself the bother of being answerable to Koenma for not looking out for his helpless and hapless ferry girl, Hiei crossed the room with long, brisk strides and pulled open the curtains covering the sliding doors.

"Nn, Hiei?"

Hiei froze at the sound of the woman saying his name. She sounded as though she was still half-asleep, and maybe if he ran out very quickly she would think that she had just dreamt his presence there. He looked back over his shoulder at the bed, relieved to see that she had apparently gone back to sleep anyway. He slid open the door and lifted a foot to step outside before stopping again. He slowly took his foot back into the room and slid the door closed again before turning fully to face the bed.

The first clear thought that entered his head was that he had really liked the feeling of waking up in that bed with her in his arms two days ago.

The next thought he had was that he had to get away and fast.

He quickly moved over to the bed, eying her over to check that she was not secretly awake and spying on him, noticing then that she appeared to be frowning. She did sometimes frown, but without a smile and with her eyes closed the expression looked out of place on her face.

"Hn," Hiei grunted, pressing a thumb against the skin between her eyebrows.

His action did not straighten out her frown as he had thought it would, but it did tell him that she was actually cold to the touch. He touched his hand to her forehead, deciding that she actually felt uncomfortably cold, almost as cold as an ice maiden. Her energy seemed unusually low too, though he could not think of any reason why that would be: unless she had expended it all in her activities with Kurama that evening.

Hiei started to feel angry again, but he found himself crawling onto the bed and wrapping the woman up in the bed-sheets. He was only doing it to keep the others from blaming him later if something happened to her, he told himself. She still felt cold, even with the sheets around her, and so he pulled her into his arms, holding her close to his chest and resting his chin on top of her head. He would just hold her until she warmed up a bit and then he could leave and never have to think about her again.

Though he was not entirely happy with the idea of leaving the balcony doors unlocked: but what other choice did he have?

* * *

Botan woke slowly, feeling as though she had a hangover. Her mouth was dry, her head ached and her limbs felt wobbly and weak. She could not even think why she felt so awful. She had not slept terribly well, nightmares keeping her from a restful sleep most of the night, but as she lay coming to her senses the sounds and images from her dreams faded from her mind. She sat up with a groan, noticing then that she had slept fully clothed and wound around in the bed-sheets, which would probably account for her feeling dehydrated and tense. She fought her way free of the bedding and crossed the room, switching on the kettle before turning around to face the balcony doors, stretching her arms above her head. Apparently she had been so worn out the night before, she had not even bothered closing the curtains or locking the balcony door.

Botan slowly lowered her arms to her sides, realising then that she could not actually remember going to bed the night before. Perhaps she had been drinking, she thought darkly. Maybe she had gone to the bar in the hotel and drank herself into a stupor before staggering back to her room: the last thing she could actually remember was returning to the hotel via the back entrance and sneaking between elevators to avoid having to listen to Koenma laughing at her again. After that, her next memory was of waking up in bed that morning.

Botan felt a strange sense of a presence rising within her, and she reached for the partially open curtains, opening them out wide to expose the entire balcony to her view. She was not sure if she was surprised or relieved to see Hiei asleep on the floor outside the doors.

She quietly slid open the door and stepped outside, managing to walk over to Hiei's side and start to bend down before he woke up and became aware of her presence. His eyes opened and looked about suspiciously, almost popping out of his head when they landed on her. He leapt to his feet and jumped back from her, glaring at her as though she had just kicked him awake.

"Hiei, what are you doing out here?" she asked.

He grumbled out a barely legible curse before attempting to leap onto the railings. Botan grabbed at his arm, only managing to catch his wrist as he jumped up. He landed back on the balcony floor a little awkwardly before turning to glare at her again.

"Hiei?" she said. "Did you sleep out here all night? I don't remember what happened–"

"Don't lie to me!" he snapped, yanking his arm from her grasp. "You wore yourself out with Kurama."

Botan felt the blood draining from her face. Hiei knew about her agreement with Kurama? But if he knew that she had helped Kurama grow another Tree of Previous Life, did he also know why she had done it? Did he know that she also used The Stolen Moment to go back in time and meddle in his life?

"Hn, you must think I'm as stupid as you are," he added. "I know all about what you did with Kurama yesterday, so don't try to play the innocent ferry girl act with me."

He leapt up onto the railings, turning to glare down at her as the wind tugged at his clothing and hair.

"I never break an alliance or an agreement," he said. "So I don't appreciate it when someone else breaks one with me."

He leapt from the railings and Botan hurriedly peered over the edge to see which way he had gone, but he had already disappeared from her line of sight. She stood back with a sigh, feeling even more confused than ever. Was he accusing her or breaking an alliance or an agreement with him? She was not even aware that they shared any sort of ongoing alliance or agreement. She wished that he would just tell her what he was thinking instead of leaving her to guess all the time. It was becoming so tiring trying to figure Hiei out that Botan felt sure she was close to giving up altogether.

The sound of balcony doors sliding open at her side made Botan hurry back into her own room, leaving her own doors open long enough to confirm that it was Koenma she had heard leaving his room. She heard him walk out onto the balcony, apparently in the middle of another argument with poor old George.

"–won't change my mind, ogre," she heard her boss say.

"But Sir, it's completely unfair!" George wailed.

"It shows that I trust you," Koenma replied.

"Sir, you're basically just dumping all of your paperwork onto me," George said. "It's not trust, it's laziness!"

The two began yelling at each other, and Botan rolled her eyes, sliding her door closed. That argument could go on for long enough; she had certainly heard it rage on for hours many times in the past. Confused, tired and a little down-hearted, Botan decided to just have a bowl of tea, have a bath and then do what Koenma had suggested she do during the last round of the tournament: go and have a break in the living world until the next round began.

* * *

Botan hummed a song she could still not quite remember the name of as she flew over the forest surrounding Genkai's temple. It was a perfect day in the living world: the sun was shining and it was warm but there was also a welcome breeze in the air and everything on the ground was green and flowering. Botan felt cheered as she saw birds sitting in nests and saw butterflies and bees fluttering around flowers. It was doubly pleasant to be amongst the joys of the living world after being in demon world for so long. She had forgotten just how much fresher, lighter and more delicious the air in the living world was, and breathing it in once again was helping to clear her head. She hoped that Yukina was alone at Genkai's, since it would be especially nice to just relax with someone so calm and polite that day and the next. Everything seemed perfect for Botan until she reached the steps leading up to Genkai's temple, where she began to notice something that soon found her gliding down to the ground level to investigate.

The vine of the guilty was still alive by the side of the gate. It had been there when she had visited Yukina earlier that week, but it had been less noticeable then for some reason. Botan wondered why Kurama had not removed it after it had served its purpose, since leaving it there seemed to only be tempting fate. Sooner or later it was bound to catch someone for thinking or acting aggressively, and Kurama had said that the plant could kill, so surely leaving it there was a very realistic hazard.

Maybe Kurama had left it there deliberately, Botan mused. He was so calculating, maybe he could see another reason for having the plant there. Maybe he was thinking ahead to the time when Yukina's baby was born. Maybe he knew something that nobody else did. It was unlike him to overlook something, and unintentionally leaving a deadly plant in a place of peace and a home of friends certainly was an oversight.

But Botan trusted Kurama. He was always sensible and in control: apart from when he ate the Fruit of Previous Life from the tree grown from her spirit energy, she thought. He had certainly not been himself then. The memory of his lips on hers was still a fresh one, particularly so because of what had happened afterwards. Koenma thinking that she and Kurama were together was just an added complication that Botan did not want to have to deal with, especially because he had said that he was happy for her to be with Kurama, but not with anyone else, even going as far as to say that the thought of her with Hiei was ridiculous to him.

But Botan still wanted to be with Hiei. Even that morning when he had been behaving oddly she had enjoyed having him near her. Maybe he had come to her room the night before, she thought. Maybe he had been hoping to share a drink with her again. She had really enjoyed those nights they had talked on the balcony, and she had especially enjoyed the night he had stayed the entire night with her just holding her in his arms.

She sighed and started to walk towards the temple, moving at a slow pace, her head still filled with thoughts of Hiei. The night they had ordered that disgusting meal had been sublime. She knew that she would never forget the way he had kissed her then. She wished she knew why he had stopped and acted strangely in the bed, switching the light on and off and giving her funny looks. Maybe she should have just told him to stop acting so strangely. She wished she was confident enough to just tell him things like that: if she had been, she would have told him to keep kissing her and to keep touching her. Although he had kissed her several times that night, he had not really touched her very much, and she did have a secret longing to feel his hands on every part of her body. That night on the beach had been the only time she had really had the pleasure of feeling his hands on her, and she ached for more. Even just thinking about it, she could almost feel his hands on her: warm and strong and confident in every touch.

Thinking about Hiei like that Botan could feel his fingers on the inside of her thigh: that was strange. Maybe it was a memory of the day she had been bitten by the snake and he had sucked the poison from her wound. She had not thought much about his actions that day, but as she thought about them again she began to feel another longing, a longing to feel his lips touching her there again, a longing that made the feeling of his fingers on her leg seem all the more real. The feeling was so real, Botan had to stop walking to catch her breath. For the first time ever, she found that thinking about Hiei was just as intense as being with Hiei. She closed her eyes and held back a moan as she felt something sliding between her legs. It became harder and harder for her to control herself as the feeling continued, sliding, so close to her, moving around and curling over her hip.

Botan's eyes opened sharply. Slowly she lowered her head, almost screaming when she saw something green snaking its way around her left thigh. Her first thought was that she was being attacked by a snake, but a closer looked revealed that there was more than one tendril winding its way around her leg and hip, and slowly she began to realise what was happening. She turned her head, looking behind herself to see that several green stalks were coming out the back of her legs and stretching all the way back to one point: the vine of the guilty.

Botan whimpered quietly, turning back to look down at herself, seeing the vines slowly winding their way around her. She was starting to sweat and shake all over: what a liar Kurama was! He had told her that the vines would never attack her, and now they were attacking her for no reason at all! She almost felt vindicated: she had always known that there was something wrong with that plant after it had failed to attack Hiei for saying horrible things about the ice maidens only to viciously bind him up when he behaving and talking calmly.

"Kurama…!" she growled out through tightly clenched teeth.

The vines were wrapping around her slowly, but as she watched, more and more of them were winding around her and as they wound around her they were progressively getting thicker. Soon the thorns would reach her and then she would be in a terrible situation: she could still remember the cuts on Hiei when he had finally escaped the vines. In particular, she remembered the moment she had returned his boot to him, and even then, some time after the vines had attacked him, his wounds were still obvious and his clothes had been quite badly torn in several places.

Just after that he had jumped at her, taking her from her oar, and he had pinned her to the ground and kissed her and that had been the first kiss they had shared that both had actually enjoyed, and it had also been the first time Hiei had said her name.

Botan smiled and sighed at the memory of Hiei licking her neck and his voice speaking her name; and then, just to prove to her that the vines were faulty, they suddenly clenched into her, squeezing her almost painfully; but she was alarmed to feel that the sensation of the vines gripping into her lower body was not entirely unpleasant. She groaned involuntarily and more vines began sliding around her, tangling her further. She staggered helplessly on the spot before falling backwards, her body catching against the vines, which lifted her slightly from the ground. She began to panic then, fearing that soon she would be hoisted high into the air and tortured like Hiei had been: and it was all Kurama's fault for his negligence!

Botan closed her eyes and threw her head back, crying out in frustration, anger, pain and confusion.

"Kurama!" she yelled.

* * *

"Here are some flowers, for all of the hours, that I've loved you baby."

Shizuru paused in the doorway before slowly turning her head to Keiko, glaring at her almost accusingly.

"What?" Keiko mouthed out, shrugging innocently.

"You had to ask, didn't you?" Shizuru groaned, putting down the tray of tea a little too loudly onto the coffee table.

"I love your little face, you've got such grace, I love you for sure not maybe."

"I didn't know!" Keiko whispered as Shizuru sat down next to her.

"Yes you did," Shizuru sighed.

"Okay, I guess I just forgot!" Keiko replied.

"How could you possibly forget something this lame?" Shizuru growled.

"We watch the moon at night, the stars that shine so bright, you are the one for me."

"You're a damn masochist, Keiko Yukimura," Shizuru grumbled.

"I forgot!" Keiko hissed.

"You're the one I love, the one I dream of, you are the lock for my key."

"Hey!" Shizuru snapped, tearing a sheet of paper from the notebook lying on the table and balling it in her hands. "That last part was a bit suggestive!"

She threw the ball of paper at Kuwabara's head, but he angrily batted it away, scowling down at her.

"Shut-up, Shizuru!" he said. "You don't understand true love!"

Shizuru groaned, dropping back in the sofa. Keiko laughed nervously at her before smiling at Kuwabara.

"Maybe we should play a game, or watch a movie," she said. "Or, y'know… Just basically do anything else that doesn't involve us having to listen to your poetry any more…"

"You asked to hear it, Keiko!" Kuwabara shot back.

"What Keiko is trying to say, little brother," Shizuru said, sitting up again. "Is that you are boring us all to tears. Even Yukina is sick of listening to you rhyming stupid words like "splendid" with "when-did"."

"I resent that, Shizuru!" Kuwabara said moodily. "I have never used the word "splendid" in any of my love sonnets!"

"Love sonnets?" Keiko groaned.

"Maybe we could play a board game?" Yukina suggested.

"You see?" Shizuru said, pointing at Yukina and glaring at her brother. "Even Yukina has had enough!"

"Oh no, I could listen to Kazuma read his beautiful poetry all day!" Yukina replied.

"Honey, please," Shizuru said to her. "I'm all for being nice, but there comes a time in every girl's life when she has to just stand up and say "enough is enough". Even the nicest, sweetest, most innocent girl has to occasionally go a little bit wild."

"Ooh-aw, Kurama!"

Shizuru, Keiko, Kuwabara and Yukina all glanced around each other, progressively becoming more confused and more concerned.

"Please tell me I'm not the only who just heard a woman screaming out Kurama's name orgasmically?" Kuwabara asked quietly.

"It-it sounded like Botan's voice!" Keiko muttered thoughtfully.

Shizuru brightened, clapping her hands together.

"Ladies, I think we just found a fun activity for this afternoon!" she said, leaping to her feet.

"Hey, wait for me!" Keiko cried, hurrying after her as she ran from the room.

Yukina started to waddle after them, causing Kuwabara to yelp and drop his sheets of handwritten poetry.

"Yukina my love, don't run!" he cried, hurrying after her.

"But Botan is in trouble!" she called back over her shoulder.

Kuwabara ran faster, scooping Yukina up into his arms and carrying her out of the temple after the others despite her quiet insistence that she was fine to run on her own. He kept running until he reached the others, his mind taking a long time to process exactly what was happening: the demon plant Kurama had warned them all to stay away from had caught Botan, and it was primarily wound around her lower body, making her look like she was wearing a pair of dark green shorts. Her face was red and she was breathless, but she did not look as scared or hurt as she ought to under the circumstances.

"Oh! Help me!" she whimpered.

Shizuru snorted, clapping a hand over her mouth.

"Shizuru?" Keiko muttered, turning to her curiously.

Shizuru wrapped her other arm around her stomach and her shoulders began to shake.

"Are you laughing at me, Miss Kuwabara?" Botan shrieked.

Shizuru took her hand from her mouth and laughed out loud, pointing a finger at Botan shamelessly.

"This is not funny!" Botan yelled. "This silly plant has caught me and it won't let me go!"

"But I thought the plant only attacked people with malicious intentions!" Keiko said. "And Kurama told us that you were one of the only people who would never be attacked and would be able to stop the plant, Botan!"

"I've tried to make it stop!" Botan whimpered. "It just keeps getting tighter! This isn't fair! I'm a good girl, I am!"

"Oh, this is awful!" Keiko gasped. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm not going anywhere near that thing…" Kuwabara muttered.

"Put me down, I can help!" Yukina said to him.

"No, Yukina!" he said. "That plant can kill, I'm not letting it take you too!"

"Kuwabara!" Botan snarled viciously.

"Nasty thoughts make the plant attack you!" he snapped back.

"But Kurama said Botan didn't have any bad intentions!" Keiko said.

"Kurama doesn't know Botan as well as he thought!" Shizuru laughed.

"Shizuru, this is not funny!" Botan whimpered. "I wasn't thinking anything bad at all when the plant attacked! I was thinking good, happy, loving thoughts!"

"Loving thoughts?" Keiko echoed in a low voice.

"Yeah," Shizuru said, clapping a hand onto her shoulder. ""Loving" thoughts…"

"Oh!" Keiko gasped. "Botan! The plant attacks you for thinking about sex because that's an impure thought!"

Botan gasped, turning white, then red, then white and then impossibly red.

"Keiko!" she ground out. "I would never think about that sort of thing!"

"Were you thinking about Hiei?" Kuwabara asked her.

"Why would that make the vines attack me?" Botan asked.

"…Because you want to have sex with Hiei?" Kuwabara responded, screwing his face up at her for asking such a stupid question.

"How very dare you?" she hissed.

"Well?" he said.

"Well, what?"

"Well, were you thinking about Hiei?"

Botan faltered slightly, her eyes suddenly looking in any direction but the four people watching her expectant of an answer. Shizuru began to chuckle again under her breath, and Keiko found herself fighting back laughter too.

"You have to stop thinking about Hiei, Botan," Kuwabara continued. "And while you're safely tied up and Hiei's too far away to kick my ass I just have to say: what the hell is wrong with you, Botan? Hiei's a nasty little jerk!"

"Kazuma!" Yukina wailed. "Don't say such terrible things about Mister Hiei! He's a good and honourable man! He's helping me find my brother!"

"Yeah, I know," Kuwabara sighed, rolling his eyes. "But really Yukina, he's been looking for your brother for like four years now, and he hasn't even come close, so he can't be trying that hard."

"That's not true!" Yukina said. "Mister Hiei never breaks a promise, no matter what!"

"He's not exactly reliable though…"

"Yes he is!"

"I don't get what it is with you girls and Hiei. He's not that cool you know. He's really moody, and he's so full of himself and–"

"Kuwabara, be insecure some other time!" Botan cut him off. "Do something to help me before the thorns start ripping me apart!"

"We should call Kurama!" Keiko suggested.

"Oh, of course!" Botan agreed, slapping a hand against her hip.

She wailed as her hand collided with a lump of vines.

"My communicator is the pocket of my jeans!" she cried. "And it's stuck beneath all these vines!"

"I could use my communicator," Kuwabara said.

Botan looked up at him expectantly, but he did not respond.

"Kazuma!" Yukina urged him.

"Oh, right," he said.

He carefully lowered Yukina to the ground, setting her on her feet. She edged closer to Botan, bunching her fists under her chin and frowning up at her in concern.

"Oh Botan, are you alright?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me!" Botan cheerfully replied. "Kurama will know what to do, and once Kuwabara talks to him I'll soon be… Oh my…"

Botan's eyes had lowered to Yukina's swollen stomach, and suddenly her smile had vanished.

"Hey Urameshi," Kuwabara said into his communicator. "I need to speak to Kurama."

"What the hell do you think I am?" Yusuke shouted back. "His secretary?"

"Don't be such an ass, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled. "Botan's been trapped in Kurama's plant because she was having pornographic thoughts about Hiei! Or Kurama maybe, since she was crying out his name."

"What?"

"Kuwabara!" Botan snapped.

Shizuru started to laugh again and Keiko turned her head away to conceal an amused smirk.

"Yeah, it is pretty funny," Kuwabara said. "The best part is, she's enjoying it, and that's making more vines attack her!"

Botan mewed out in complaint.

"Turn the communicator around, let me see!" Yusuke said.

Kuwabara turned his communicator around and Yusuke started to laugh through it.

"This isn't funny!" Botan wailed. "It hurts!"

"Well you're on your own, Botan," Yusuke said. "Kurama went back to the living world this morning. I think he went to see his family."

"No!" Botan cried.

"Tough break, Botan!" Yusuke said, before laughing darkly.

She growled and struggled at her ties in vain.

"Hey, I could call Kurama on his cell phone," Kuwabara suggested as he returned his communicator to his pocket.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Botan snapped.

"Right, yeah."

Kuwabara took out his cell phone and pressed a few keys before holding it to his ear.

"Hey Kurama?" he said. "Yeah, it's Kuwabara. Hey, how's it going in the tournament, you still in? Oh yeah? What about Urameshi and Hiei? Really? Hey what about all those other guys? The other guys. You know, Jin, Touya, Chu–"

"Kuwabara!" Botan roared.

"Oh, right, Kurama, Botan got caught in your demon plant at Genkai's," Kuwabara continued. "It won't let go, what should we do? Oh no, don't worry about that, I'm not going anywhere near that thing. Shizuru and Keiko are staying back too. Yukina's here. She could? But she's really pregnant, she shouldn't be straining herself like that. This is Botan's fault anyway. She was having sexy thoughts about you."

"Kuwabara!" Botan screamed, her voice loud enough to scare off a flock of birds from the nearby trees.

"Yeah, she's pretty upset about it," Kuwabara said. "For a ferry girl, she's not exactly showing much patience. But Yukina is meant to be resting, and–"

"Kuwabara, just shut-up and let Yukina help me!" Botan snapped.

"I can help?" Yukina asked.

"Kurama says yes," Kuwabara answered her.

"Oh, okay!"

Yukina hurried over to Botan as quickly as she could, reaching out her hands.

"What should I do first, Botan?" she asked, looking up at her friend.

"Well the last time I just touched them and unravelled them," Botan replied. "They wilted as soon as I touched them, and some of them even unravelled themselves."

"Okay," Yukina said with a nod.

She gripped at the vine nearest her, picking the thickest one first. As she clutched her fingers into it, Botan began to sweat.

"Are you alright, Botan?" Yukina asked her.

"For now," she quietly replied. "But I have a horrible feeling I won't be for long…"

Yukina frowned up at her but Botan offered no further explanation for her words.

* * *

Botan swallowed hard and closed her eyes, if only so that she would not have to see what was happening. Yukina was grabbing at the vines, but they were not responding to her touch in the slightest. Quite obviously the plant was faulty, since there was no soul kinder or purer than Yukina's.

"I-it's not working!" Yukina wailed. "Botan, it won't let go!"

Botan opened her eyes again, wondering why Yukina sounded so upset. Before she even got Yukina into her line of sight she felt exactly why the ice maiden was panicking: a small but bitingly sharp thorn cut into her left thigh, nicking the material of her jeans and barely missing her skin beneath.

"We don't have much time," she said. "Kuwabara, give me your phone, let me speak with Kurama please."

She turned to Kuwabara expectantly, but again he just stood still and did nothing.

"Kuwabara!" she snapped.

He walked over and passed her the phone, smiling slightly as she took it.

"This is not funny, Mister Kuwabara!" she warned him.

"Yeah it is!" he replied.

Botan shook her head at him, lifting the phone to her ear.

"Kurama?" she said.

"Botan, I'm shocked," Kurama replied in an almost admonishing tone that made Botan blush.

"You're stupid little plant is wrong!" she sulkily replied. "It's attacking me and now it won't let go for Yukina!"

"It won't… What?"

"It won't let go for Yukina!"

Botan waited for Kurama to reply, wondering if she had lost the signal when her words were met with an unending silence.

"Kurama?" she asked.

"Botan, I…" he replied, sounding far away. "Are you sure the vines don't respond to Yukina's touch?"

"Absolutely!" she replied urgently. "If you're already in the living world, can't you come here and uproot this rebel plant?"

"I'm more concerned about… Botan, is Yukina close to you right now?"

"She's standing right in front of me. Why do you ask?"

"How does she look?"

"What sort of question is that? Wait a minute, who am I talking to here?"

"…You're talking to Kurama, Botan."

"Sensible Kurama or Pervo Kurama?"

"…Botan, please, exercise a little humility. My question was not one of a lewd nature: I meant does she appear to be carrying a child?"

"Yes, of course she does! Did you forget that she was pregnant already?"

"No, Botan, you didn't let me finish."

"Oh, sorry Kurama."

"Does Yukina appear to be carrying a child, or does she appear to be carrying two?"

Botan's eyes lowered to Yukina's exceptionally large bump and she almost dropped the phone as she considered Kurama's question.

"Um… Why do you ask?" she asked quietly.

"Well, it's true that the vine of the guilty will not attack anyone with good intentions or pure thoughts, but the sort of person who can stop the plant has to be rather more than just a well-meaning soul," he replied. "Only a person of… Purity can remove the vines."

"P-Purity?" Botan echoed.

"Botan, surely even you have the sense to understand what I am trying to convey," Kurama said patiently. "If the vines won't release for Yukina's hands it is because she is not pure."

"It's because she's a demon?"

"Oh Botan, you can be quite infuriating sometimes."

"Well excuse me, mister fancy pants word games! Stop dallying about the point and just tell me what you mean!"

"I mean that Yukina is not a virgin, and therefore there is a distinct chance that she is currently in the same predicament her own mother once was: she is carrying her own child and someone else's."

Botan dropped the phone.

"Oh goodness gracious me…" she mumbled.

She stumbled a little as her feet touched the ground, too shocked to feel relief as the vines became loose about her body.

"You did it, Botan!" Yukina said cheerfully. "You're so clever!"

Botan shook her head, pulling the vines from her body and stepping out of them before retrieving Kuwabara's phone.

"Hey are you okay?" Shizuru called over to her.

Botan looked around the others as Kurama called out to her from the phone in her hand. She swallowed hard and summoned her oar, shooting up high into the sky, taking herself far out of earshot of the others before taking the phone to her ear again.

"K-Kurama, are you sure about this?" she whispered, still feeling scared she might be overheard despite the distance. "Are you saying that Yukina and Kuwabara… And that she will give birth to a boy like… Hiei?"

"It's hard to say what sort of child a human man would create with an ice maiden," Kurama replied. "Perhaps not one so violent as one born from a demon father, we can but hope."

"Kurama, this can't be serious! How can… Surely… The timing was…"

"It's possible that when Yukina went through the typical hormonal changes before falling pregnant by immaculate means that her attitude towards her relationship with Kuwabara changed."

"But Kuwabara swore that he had never… When we first found out, he was… Unless it was someone else?"

Botan grew increasingly tense when Kurama did not answer her, and a glance downwards showed her Yukina looking even more ridiculously pregnant when seen from above.

"Oh Kurama, it's just not possible!" she blurted out. "Yukina has not left the temple in months, the only men she has interacted with during that time are Kuwabara, Yusuke and you!"

Botan almost fell off of her oar when Kurama still did not answer her.

"Kurama?" she snapped. "Say something!"

"Botan, if you clear your mind, the vines should release for you," he replied. "You are still a… You're still pure."

"Two steps ahead of you, mister fox," she replied. "I'm free. I'm more concerned about what you're telling me about Yukina!"

"Perhaps you should talk to her about it, you are her closest friend."

"But I'm so scared! I don't want to accidentally say something I shouldn't about forbidden children!"

"You'll think of something Botan, you always do, it's your most admirable quality."

Botan's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Did Kurama just compliment her? Though he did owe her some sort of compensation for criticising her earlier, she decided.

"I don't know…" she muttered.

"You lack confidence in yourself, but you shouldn't," he replied. "Your tenacity in a dilemma, your can-do attitude and your unexpected ability to articulate aptly at crucial moments are things you should be proud of."

Botan was starting to blush.

"If you need anything else, you can call me on this number," Kurama continued. "I am in my apartment, still testing the fruits and working with Hana. Obviously I trust you not to share that information with anyone else, but now you know where you can find me if you need anything."

"Right, thanks Kurama. You're a good friend."

"And obviously it would be wise not to tell Hiei about any of this. And for now I will leave the vine of the guilty exactly where it is, just in case we have a need for it again."

"Understood. Thanks, Kurama."

"Goodbye, Botan."

"Goodbye."

Botan ended the call and lowered herself back down, flying towards the temple entrance, being mindful to stay away from the vine of the guilty. The others met her there, all watching her curiously.

"Can we ask what all that was about?" Shizuru asked her. "Or was that a conversation only members of the secret squirrel club get to hear?"

""Secret squirrel club"!" Botan laughed. "Oh Shizuru, you do make me laugh!"

Botan forced out some false laughter, walking into the temple ahead of the others. This was apparently going to be one more time where she was going to have to hide her true fears from the others behind smiles and silliness.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan has an enlightening conversation with Kuwabara, she has a disturbing conversation with Yukina and she has a heart-warming meeting with Rui. **Chapter 31: The True Picture**

 **A/N:** Thanks again to readers and reviewers. I feel this story is going slow again, but the story is building up to some major action and I have to take it slow so that everything makes sense. Or maybe I'm just building tension to be cruel… Muahahaha!

I posted more fanart, but it's not really fascinating stuff. Link to all fanart can be found on my profile page next to "web".


	31. The True Picture

**Recap:** Hiei helped Botan back to her room but then said some cryptic things before leaving her, Botan learned first-hand about the power of the vine of the guilty and after speaking to Kurama and seeing Yukina fail to overcome the vine's powers, she began to fear that Yukina was following in her mother's footsteps…

* * *

 **Chapter 31: The True Picture**

Botan placed some fresh flowers by Genkai's shrine. It had been an eventful day and she had mainly gone there to get some peace.

"I still miss you, Genkai," she said gently, sitting down by the headstone. "We all do. We miss your sage advice, your dry humour, your strong female persona and your ability to make Yusuke look stupid all the time."

Botan sighed, looking up at the stars in the sky.

"I especially miss your sage advice," she said quietly. "I'm so confused about so many things, and I know that if you were still here, I could talk to you and you would know just the right thing to say and do. I just have so many things on my mind… Tomorrow morning, I have to return to the ice village to collect Rui's letter to Yukina, and then the day after that it's round three of the demon world tournament and Kurama is going to use fruits that I stole from spirit world and helped him grow to win his fight – is that cheating? I can't be sure – and then there's Hiei… I wish I had a jagan eye. If I did, I would open up his mind and take a darn good look inside!"

Botan smiled.

"You would probably tell me I'm being silly," she said. "You would probably tell me to smarten up, and you would be right, of course… Only the thing is Genkai, I'm not really sure what I have to do to smarten up this time… I wish you were here."

Botan sighed, turning towards the wind and letting it blow her hair back from her face. She wondered what would happen after the tournament was over: who would the new ruler of demon world be and when would the spirit detective team be reunited again? Of course there would always be little gatherings at Genkai's as there had been before, but Botan knew that, just as had been the case before, Hiei would not attend those small reunions, and it would take another missing spirit world artefact or another tournament or a conspiracy threatening all three worlds to force Hiei to join them all again.

She wondered what it would take to reach his heart; if it was even possible to do such a thing.

"I've tried talking to the others," she said. "But that's just made me even more confused than before. Let's see, Yusuke, Keiko, Shizuru and Izumi told me I should just… Well, you know, and Mukuro and Kurama told me to stay away from him, and Ayame thinks I'm crazy."

Botan paused, frowning in thought.

"That's so strange," she muttered to herself. "The demons advised me not to and the humans and spirits advised me to do it… Though I suppose Yusuke isn't entirely human, and Ayame was against it… Hm…"

Botan tapped a finger against her chin, becoming lost in thought. She almost wished she had not just realised the unusual pattern of advice she had listened to lately, as it was becoming an added complication that she did not need in her already confused and tired mind.

"Hey Botan."

Botan turned her head sharply, surprised to suddenly no longer be alone.

"Kuwabara!" she blurted out in surprise as she saw him walking towards her.

"Are you okay?"

"Um, yes, of course."

Botan got to her feet and wiped the dirt from her knees before smiling at her old friend.

"Yukina was asking for you," he explained. "She's gone to sleep now."

"So early?" Botan echoed.

"Yeah, she gets really tired lately," Kuwabara said with a small shrug. "It's hard work carrying a baby all the time. I couldn't even do it for one day."

"Yes, well, you'll never have to," Botan pointed out.

"I mean I tried it, but it's a lot more difficult than you think it would be."

Botan's face twisted. At least talking to Kuwabara was distracting her from her darker thoughts.

"You tried it?" she asked.

"Yeah, I got one of those pregnancy suits," Kuwabara replied. "I was gonna wear it for a day to understand what it's like for Yukina, but it was heavy and it got in my way all the time."

"…You're really… Very… Sympathetic in all of this."

"I love Yukina."

"You didn't even hesitate when you said that."

"Why would I?"

Botan smiled, patting Kuwabara on the shoulder.

"It's very sweet," she said. "It warms my heart to see the two of you together."

"Yeah…" he said slowly. "You know Botan, before I met Yukina, I kinda had a crush on you."

"Yes, I noticed," she said with a smile.

"And you're a really nice girl, Botan."

"Well thank you, Kuwabara. You're a very nice boy."

"I wasn't joking around earlier about Hiei."

"What?"

Botan suddenly felt her heart drop upon hearing Kuwabara mention Hiei's name.

"He's a great fighter, and he helped us out when we were desperate," he continued. "But Hiei's not really somebody I would call a friend. Yusuke and Kurama are like brothers to me, but Hiei… He lets us down a lot and he's always so stuck-up and he never wants to have any fun. I don't think he would make you happy, Botan. Maybe you should forget about him."

"…Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

Botan turned her head from Kuwabara, partly because she was close to tears that she did not want him to see and partly because the look on his face was almost too intense: he really did mean everything he had just said.

"Yukina said you really like Hiei," he added. "And I know there was something going on between the two of you when we were looking for The Stolen Moment… I probably shouldn't say this, but I overheard Hiei and Kurama talking about you when I was demon world back then, just after that demon plant caught Hiei. Hiei was telling Kurama that he doesn't really even like you, but he thought it was fun trying to… Y'know, just take advantage if you, because you're a ferry girl and it was dangerous for him to be chasing after you. He said it was just a game for him."

Botan nodded her head but kept her head turned from Kuwabara.

"I'm really sorry Botan," he said gently. "I don't want to upset you, but we're friends, and telling you was the right thing to do. Love is important and precious, don't waste yours on somebody who can't return it."

"Oh my…" Botan whispered involuntarily.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes!"

Botan forced another flawless smile and turned to face Kuwabara again, relieved to see that he was mostly convinced by her act.

"Thank you for your honesty," she said. "I appreciate it."

Kuwabara nodded and Botan wondered if this was a good time for her to be so brutally honest with him and ask him outright about just how far he had taken his relationship with Yukina and if he realised the implications of that if he had.

"It's not long now until the baby comes, you know," he said.

"Yes," she agreed. "Are you still excited?"

"I learned how to drive and I bought a car," he replied.

"…Why?"

"So that I can take Yukina and the baby places. I got a baby-seat for the car too."

"…Seriously?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh goodness, you really are a gentleman, aren't you? The child is not even yours."

"You don't understand."

"I don't?"

"The baby is Yukina's, and I love Yukina, so I love the baby too, and that's as good as the baby being mine, right?"

Botan covered her mouth with one hand, feeling closer to tears than ever that night.

"Oh my, Kurama was right!" she whispered into her hand. "There really is a lesson to be learned here about… How we should all behave and what we should expect in return…"

Botan caught Kuwabara giving her a funny look she quickly covered her conflicting emotions with a smile.

"Let's get back inside, it's getting late," she suggested.

"Okay," he said. "Maybe you should check to see if Yukina's still awake, she wanted to talk to you before you go back to the ice village – but don't wake her if she's asleep."

"Right, of course," Botan agreed.

They walked the rest of the way to the temple together in a silence that was only broken when they got inside and heard Shizuru and Keiko talking loudly about something. Kuwabara scowled and took off in the direction of their voices, and Botan decided to leave him to it, taking herself upstairs to Yukina's room. As she neared the door she started to remember what Kurama had told her earlier, and she began to hope that Yukina was still asleep, as she had no idea how to even begin asking her about the likelihood of her repeating her mother's choices and giving birth to twins.

"Knock, knock!" Botan whispered, gently pushing open the door and stepping inside the room.

Yukina was lying in bed and looked quite happily asleep, so Botan turned to leave the room again, feeling torn between relief at avoiding the inevitable for a little longer and guilt for not wanting to speak with her friend.

"Botan?"

Botan stopped short, hesitating in the doorway, unsure if she should respond to Yukina's voice or not.

"Botan, is that you?" Yukina called to her.

"Um, yes," Botan replied leaning back into the room. "But I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's okay," Yukina assured her. "Come in and speak with me."

"Okay."

Botan moved back into the room, struggling to keep a smile on her face as Yukina sat up and she was once more confronted with the sight of her engorged stomach. Botan was sure that, even in the seven days since she had last seen Yukina, the ice maiden had gotten noticeably bigger.

"I haven't seen you since you went to the ice village," Yukina said to Botan as she sat down on the foot of her bed. "Did you see Rui?"

"Yes I did," Botan replied. "She knew that you would soon be having a child, and she asked she to give her eight days to write her response, so I'm guessing she has rather a lot to say to you."

"I wrote a long letter," Yukina said. "I put some of my sketches in there too, I hope she likes them."

"Oh yes, I saw some of your drawings at Rui's house. I never knew you liked to draw so much."

"Rui taught me to draw. She's much better than I am."

"So what did you draw for Rui? More animals?"

"No, I drew pictures of my friends."

Botan tensed slightly, the vague sense that something was amiss slowly passing over her.

"How nice," she said, hiding her apprehension behind a smile.

"I drew Kazuma, and you, and Puu," Yukina said.

"I'm sure Rui will enjoy hearing about Kuwabara," Botan said. "He's very kind to you, Rui would be happy to know that you have found someone so caring to look after you."

"I told her all about Kazuma in my letter. And I told her all about you, Botan. I told her about all of our friends."

"Shizuru and Keiko too?"

"Yes, and I drew them, too!"

"Did you tell her about Genkai?"

"Yes. I told her about everyone."

"Did you tell her about Lord Koenma?"

"And George!"

"Did you draw George? I would like to see that…"

"I drew all my friends."

"What about Yusuke and Kurama?"

Yukina nodded and Botan started to relax, wondering why she had been so concerned. After all, what was wrong with Yukina telling Rui about her friends?

"And I told her about Mister Hiei and how he's helping me find my brother!"

Botan almost fell off the bed. For several seconds she was completely unable to keep the horror from her face, her only relief being that Yukina seemed not to notice or else not to care that she was sweating and panicking quietly at her side.

"Did…" Botan began, trying to look calm but failing miserably. "Did you d-draw a picture of Mister Hiei too?"

Yukina nodded and Botan had to grip at the bed-sheets to hold herself in place. Having seen one year old Hiei herself, she knew that it would not be terribly difficult for someone who had only known Hiei as a baby to be able to identify him as an adult: she silently hoped that Yukina's drawings of people were less accurate than those she did of animals.

"Maybe you shouldn't have done that, Yukina," she said carefully.

"But why not?" Yukina asked innocently.

"Because Hiei is a fire demon, and the ice maidens fear fire demons, don't they?" Botan replied. "Maybe it will upset and worry Rui is she finds out you are associating with a fire demon."

"Oh no, you're wrong, Botan!" Yukina said, shaking her head. "Rui has a kind heart, she didn't want to cast my brother from the ice village, she believes it was a mistake! She would never hate a fire demon, especially not one so noble and courageous as Mister Hiei!"

"…"Noble and courageous"…?"

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just… Thinking aloud… You know Yukina, I would love to see one of your drawings of us sometime."

"I have drawings of Kazuma under my bed!"

"Excellent!"

Yukina started to move but Botan had dropped onto the floor and half-crawled under the bed before Yukina could even lift the sheets aside to follow.

"Bingo!" Botan said, easing herself back out with a pad of paper. "Is this your sketchbook?"

Yukina nodded and Botan wasted no time flipping it open. The first few pages were pictures of animals, birds, Puu, koi from the pond and flowers, but Botan soon found a picture of a human face looking up at her. She paused, her face twisting through a range of emotions from surprise to plain confusion at what she saw.

"Who is this?" she asked, looking up at Yukina.

"That's Kazuma!" Yukina replied, smiling at her.

"It is?"

Botan looked down at the sketch again, silently wondering if it was perhaps time for Yukina to see an optician. The picture was of the same level of quality as her other drawings – above average but by no means brilliant – but the only resemblance it bore to Kuwabara was the curly hair above the face.

"It's not…" Botan began, wondering how best to tell Yukina how inaccurate her drawing was without offending her. "It's not a great likeness, is it?"

"You don't think it looks like Kazuma?" Yukina asked.

Botan looked up at the potentially hurt look on Yukina's face, silently regretting mentioning the obvious erroneousness of her sketch. After all, if she had drawn Kazuma this way – with an almost perfectly handsome, chiselled face like some sort of superhero from an expensive movie – there was a good chance she had drawn Hiei entirely unlike himself, that was a good thing.

"Maybe you don't see him the same way that I do," Yukina added quietly. "Rui always told me that when I draw people, it's more important to capture their character and spirit than to worry about physical limitations. I always draw Kazuma brave and kind and strong because that's who he is."

"Oh I see!" Botan said. "Well that's a lovely idea! And you're right, that is exactly how Kuwabara is!"

Botan silently wondered how Yukina saw Hiei, but decided not to ask.

"Well I'm sure Rui will just love your pictures," Botan added. "She still has all the other pictures you drew for her before!"

"It was important for me to tell her about Kazuma," Yukina replied. "I know she would love him too if she could ever meet him."

"Of course she would," Botan agreed, sliding Yukina's sketchbook under her bed and moving to sit on the bed again.

"He's always so kind and gentle, sometimes it just overwhelms me," Yukina said softly. "In the ice village, nobody was so passionate as Kazuma. Rui was always kind, but her kindness was more distant somehow. It took me a long time to understand Kazuma's ways."

"Yes, it took us all a long time to understand that boy…" Botan muttered.

"But he was very patient, and now he makes me so happy."

"Well that's the most important thing: happiness."

"I was always confused in the ice village because I didn't like women the same way the other ice maidens did. I suppose that must have been how my mother felt."

"Yes, the… Wait, what?"

"I never thought that it was because I could only love a man. In the ice village, love with a man is not only forbidden, it's not even considered possible by most of the women there."

"Um…"

"Rui was sympathetic, but she told me that I would never be happy in the ice village if I didn't want to be with another woman."

"Ah… What?!"

"I think Rui was in love with my mother. It must have been hard for her when she found out that my mother preferred men."

"Gah… Uh?"

"It felt like a sin to even think about being with a man."

"Uh…"

"But Kazuma was so gentle and patient, and now I understand everything."

"…Everything…?"

Botan turned to Yukina, eying her over warily. Yukina merely smiled back at her, doing little to ease her mounting concerns and awkwardness.

"I didn't even really understand what it was to make love to a man."

Botan raised a fist to her mouth and bit down onto her knuckles to stop herself from yelping out in panic at what she was hearing.

"But now I understand why my mother risked the wrath of the entire ice village for it."

Botan bit a little harder, the pain coming as a welcome distraction.

"It's made me so happy, I have feelings in my heart that I never thought were possible before."

Botan wanted to ask Yukina when she had first been intimate with Kuwabara, but her fear of hearing an answer she would not like combined with her increasing shock at hearing Yukina speak so frankly about love and sex kept her silent.

"It's like I'm finally free to fall in love."

"You're what?" Botan blurted, spitting out her fist.

"I feel like experiencing love making has opened a door to my deepest feelings," Yukina replied.

"Really?" Botan echoed.

Yukina nodded.

"Do you think that's just something about you, or would that apply to, I don't know, say, your brother?" Botan asked.

Yukina frowned.

"Why would you ask that?" she asked.

Botan laughed nervously, waving her hands around dismissively.

"Oh it was just a silly little idea that I had!" she said. "I was just being a nosy little kitten as always!"

Yukina started to look a little suspicious and Botan began to inwardly berate herself: what had she been thinking asking such an outlandish question at such an inappropriate moment? Surely there were far more pressing things to be worrying about and trying to ask Yukina about: like whether or not she was carrying Kuwabara's baby as well as her own. Botan then felt her mind forget all about her gaffe and Yukina's wariness as her brain very kindly created a picture of baby Hiei, with orange curly spikes and a miniature spirit sword, running around Genkai's temple. Kurama had said that a baby born from a human man instead of a demon might not be so malicious, she reminded herself. Maybe it would be alright if Yukina had twins. Maybe the male child would be no different to any other baby. Then the only problem would be Hiei.

Botan slumped her shoulders forward in defeat: it seemed like every time she thought she could see a solution to something lately, another huge complication arose to quash her hopes.

"My brother's very troubled, I think," Yukina said suddenly. "But he feels so far away it's difficult to know for sure. I hope one day he can find happiness like I have. I would like to find him, but even if I never do, I hope he can be as happy as I am now."

"Oh but I'm sure he will be very happy," Botan replied, hoping to steer the conversation away from her earlier selfish intervention.

"I hope so," Yukina said quietly. "Sometimes I think he just doesn't even want to be happy."

Botan started to agree with Yukina's ironic statement but hurriedly stopped herself, lest she had to explain how she had such knowledge of Yukina's elusive twin.

"You shouldn't worry about that now," Botan assured her. "You should get some rest, and worry about the baby."

"You're right, Botan," Yukina agreed with a smile. "I'm sure Mister Hiei will bring my brother to me one day, and we'll all be happy then."

"Yes, well, Mister Hiei is sometimes busy with other things and can be a little unreliable," Botan muttered.

"He doesn't visit any more," Yukina said. "But I know that he has good reasons, and he'll be back soon."

Botan forced a smile, though she was tempted to tell Yukina not to bother waiting. She doubted Hiei would ever go back to visit his sister, and probably only because he could not face her baby for whatever repressed reason he had. He would selfishly use his jagan to reassure his own mind that Yukina was alright and to monitor her life whilst never allowing her the chance to see him again.

Botan sighed, rising to her feet.

"Well, I'm going to bed now too," she said. "Goodnight Yukina."

"Will I see you in the morning?" Yukina asked.

"Probably not, I have to leave early to get back to the ice village, but you'll certainly see me in the afternoon," Botan replied. "And remember: I'll be coming back with Rui's letter!"

"I can't wait to read it," Yukina said. "How can I ever thank you for doing this for me, Botan?"

"It's nothing. Now get some sleep."

Botan left the room, giving Yukina one last wave before she closed the door behind herself. She contemplated finding Kuwabara and beating him about the head with her baseball bat until he confessed when he had first started having sex with Yukina, but she was quite tired and a part of her was still too afraid to hear the answer. She thought that perhaps Kurama already knew that Yukina was expecting twins and that was the real reason why he had insisted the vine of the guilty be left where it was: though she wondered what Hiei would honestly do if Yukina did have Kuwabara's baby. After all, he had chosen not to tell Yukina of their relationship, so really he had no right to interfere.

As Botan made her way to the room she was staying in she passed the living room, where Kuwabara was trying to stop his sister from switching on the karaoke machine and a violent argument was pending, with Keiko desperately trying to play peacekeeper in the middle. Botan kept walking to her room, though she wondered why: her mind was far too preoccupied to be ready for sleep.

* * *

Botan hummed a tune to herself – one that she had been hearing inside her head for days but still could not name – as she flew towards the swirling grey mass of clouds that hid the ice village. She had worn an extra layer of clothes for her return visit, since even the thick winter coat she had on had been insufficient to keep out the cold on her last trip there. She had Yukina's hair ribbon prominently visible atop her head again just in case Rui's promise that the elders would not try to attack her did not prove to be true. It was not that Botan did not trust Rui, but she doubted that even the entire village of ice maidens combined would be strength enough to stop that one, exceptionally old woman with the hunchback. Botan could still clearly see the woman's sunken face and the way her eyes had glowed when she had perceived Botan as a threat during her last visit: the power that had radiated off of her had been shocking to say the least. Spirit world archives told Botan that ice maidens were not strong, mainly because of their lack of combat experience, and it would be rare if not impossible to find an ice maiden ranking above lower D-class. Botan now disputed that information, as she was sure that the old lady she had met was at least an upper C-class if not perhaps a lower B-class demon.

Botan gave a small shiver at the thought. The air was getting colder, reminding her that she was getting closer to her goal, and the wind began to grow stronger, whistling past her ears and making her ponytail whip about at the side of her head like a banner. The air soon became bitingly cold and the wind began pushing at her in gusts, but Botan welcomed it. She was relieved to finally be collecting Rui's letter because it was one less thing to worry herself over. And, as long as Yukina's drawing of Hiei had been as wildly inaccurate as her drawings of Kuwabara had been, there really was nothing to worry about, Botan told herself.

As the village started to come into view ahead of her, Botan could see the silhouette of a lone figure standing by the edge of the sheer drop from the village confines, looking out towards her. The outline was too tall and straight to be the fearsome elder, and as she got closer Botan realised that it was in fact Rui herself. Botan grinned and waved a hand at her, losing none of her enthusiasm when Rui merely frowned in reply.

"Hello again!" Botan said as she dropped from her oar at Rui's side. "I put on a nice woolly sweater this time, so I hardly felt the cold at all!"

Rui's frown flickered slightly, as though she was listening to Botan speak a language she could not understand.

"I'm glad you came back," she eventually said.

"It's super to be back!" Botan cheerfully replied.

Botan kept smiling, though she did wonder why Rui did not look glad to see her despite having said that she was.

"I waited here to be sure of your safe passage," the ice maiden said.

"Oh, well, thank you very much," Botan replied, banishing her oar. "I was a little worried I might be attacked."

"You didn't erect a barrier to protect yourself this time," Rui said.

"Well you said I wouldn't be attacked and I trusted you. I was still scared that someone might forget though."

"You should have protected yourself regardless."

Botan frowned, eying Rui over curiously. Her face was impassive and her tone had been sufficiently flat to make it impossible to know if she was giving a friendly warning or criticising Botan's lack of good judgement.

"Come with me," she said, turning from Botan and walking off.

Botan quickly followed after Rui, again watching as woman and children fled from her, trying to tell herself that they were scared because she was an outsider and that their fear was not a personal insult.

"How is Yukina?" Rui asked as they walked.

"Oh she's just super," Botan replied, trying to put thoughts of her conversation the night before with Yukina from her mind. "She's very excited to read your letter."

"I found much joy reading hers," Rui replied.

Botan glanced up at Rui's profile, seeing the faintest hint of a smile, though her eyes were still dull and saddened.

"I think Yukina sent you some pictures she drew…?" Botan asked, trying to sound casual.

"Yes, she sent me drawings of all of her new friends," Rui replied. "It warmed my heart to see them all and to read how passionate she is about them."

"Passionate, yes…" Botan muttered awkwardly.

"Yukina is like her mother in that respect," Rui continued. "She likes the company of men."

Botan gave a short, nervous laugh, but Rui appeared not to notice her anxiety.

"I worried she might be lonely after leaving the village," Rui added. "But she seems to have found good friends who take good care of her."

"Oh yes, Yukina has great friends!" Botan said brightly. "And they all love her very much!"

"She seems especially fond of Kazuma Kuwabara and you, Botan," Rui replied.

"Kuwabara is very kind to Yukina – like unbelievably so – and it's been my honour to be Yukina's friend."

"She told me she wanted you to be her lady in waiting."

Botan pulled a confused cat face at Rui, but Rui did not notice as she opened the door to her house and stepped inside ahead of Botan. Botan hurried after her, being sure to close the door behind them to at least shut out the wind and preserve the slightly less cold air to be had indoors.

"L-lady in waiting?" she asked, following Rui through the house to the room she had decorated with Yukina's sketches. "What do you mean?"

"Yukina was going to ask you to be with her for the birth of her child," Rui explained.

"Ah yes, of course!" Botan recovered. "Yes, she did ask me, and of course I was flattered and I said yes."

"Then you should take these."

Botan's eyes widened as they landed on the items piled on a small side-table that Rui was holding a hand towards.

"Um…" she began nervously. "I see…"

Botan approached the table, eying over the items with increasing curiosity and concern. It looked like Rui was offering her the necessary tools to go on an expedition to the North Pole, including a pair of long rubber gloves, two metallic spiked grids and a fur wrap that looked worryingly like it had been made from the silver hair of a fox demon.

"Typically we don't need to take such precautions here, but as you yourself are not an apparition of ice, it may be necessary," Rui explained. "These are items we reserve for visitors to the village, unaccustomed to the climate and conditions."

"Oh, I see," Botan said, nodding her head.

"Do you?" Rui asked, sound a little sceptical.

"Well… No, not really, sorry," Botan confessed.

"If I were to hit you really hard right now, what would you do?"

Botan's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and hurt: she had thought that Rui was a nice lady who appreciated her status at Yukina's friend, but apparently she had been wrong.

"I'd be very upset," Botan replied, pouting dejectedly.

Rui faltered visibly before shaking her head, her expression smoothing out again.

"No, no, you've misunderstood the point I was trying to make," she said. "I didn't expect you to take my words so literally. I expected you to tell me that you would hit me back."

"Oh… But I don't want to fight you," Botan pointed out. "I just came to collect your letter."

Rui's face twitched slightly but again she quickly covered her reaction behind a mask of calm.

"It is instinct to cause pain when we feel pain," she said patiently. "And giving birth is not a painless experience. When an ice maiden is in labour, instinct takes over, and she can unintentionally freeze her surroundings. It's a natural defence mechanism triggered by the pain she feels. It's not a problem if an ice maiden freezes her surroundings here in the already-frozen glacial village, but it could be a problem if Yukina freezes her surroundings and you with them."

"Oh, I see!" Botan said, finding her smile again. "I thought that you meant…"

Botan laughed nervously as she saw Rui giving her the sort of look that Hiei often did: that look that told her she was behaving like an idiot and that it was getting on someone else's nerves.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "And thank you very much, I will take these items, and I will bring them back afterwards."

"That would be good," Rui replied. "Do you understand what they are?"

"I think so. I wear the fur to keep warm, I put the gloves on to stop my hands from freezing and I use this item to… Um…"

Botan picked up one of the spiked grids, turning it over the air curiously.

"Those are cleats, you put them on the soles of your shoes so that you don't slip in the ice," Rui explained.

"Oh I see!" Botan said, nodding her head. "How clever! You've really thought of everything, haven't you?"

Botan looked up at Rui, surprised to see her wearing a small smile.

"It's the least I could do," she said quietly.

"I appreciate it," Botan replied. "I never would have thought of such a thing. Yukina is so gentle, I don't think I've ever seen her use her powers… Well I've seen her use her healing powers, but not her ice powers. Is it very likely that she will?"

Rui nodded her head.

"Hina, Yukina's mother, certainly did when she gave birth," she said. "Which was very fortunate for her, because if she had not activated her powers, the son of fire she birthed would surely had burnt her alive. The ice around her gave her a temporary cooling protection from him and it kept her from harm long enough for us to wrap the boy up."

"Oh dear…" Botan said, wincing at the thought.

"I was sad to read in Yukina's letter that she is still not close to finding her brother, I know she longs to be reunited with him," Rui said.

"Yes, it's a very difficult situation," Botan replied. "But don't worry, Yukina does have plenty of good friends around her, she's never lonely!"

"Yes, I can see that."

Rui stepped to one side and held a hand out to the wall of sketches behind her, which Botan turned to as she indicated it, suppressing a smirk as she once more saw Yukina's overly flattering drawing of Kuwabara. Botan edged closer to the pictures, taking several minutes to figure out who was who in each of them. Kuwabara was handsome and dignified, Yusuke was focussed but happy, Kurama strong and a little bit scary, Puu looked like a swan with an erratic hairpiece – which was reasonably accurate, Botan supposed – Genkai looked like her younger self and looked intelligent and Shizuru, Keiko and Botan looked happy and cute.

"I like how Yukina draws us," Botan commented, her eyes lingering on the picture of herself, which was only discernible from the other two girls because of her distinctive high ponytail on top of her head and her oar held in one hand at her side.

"Yes, it's important to capture the spirit of the subject in a portrait," Rui replied.

Botan started to laugh as she noticed a picture of a smiling androgynous figure with jagged hair and large eyes.

"Oh that's so adorable!" she giggled. "I wonder who that is? It doesn't look like anyone I know…"

"Yukina said that man was helping her find her brother," Rui replied. "His name's Hiei."

Botan squeaked out a noise of shock and hysteria: that was what Yukina thought Hiei's inner self looked like?

"You don't know him?" Rui asked. "But I thought that you did from what Yukina told me in her letter."

"Well I know him about as well as…" Botan began, slowly stopping as a disturbing thought occurred to her. "Wh-what did Yukina tell you in her letter?" she asked.

"She said that all of her friends worked together for spirit world," Rui replied. "And since you are a ferry girl, I assumed you would know all of these people as well as Yukina does."

"Oh, yes, right, well done."

Rui gave Botan a funny look but Botan ignored it, pretending to be interested in one of Yukina's pictures of a toad.

"Well I should thank you for coming back," Rui said after a short silence. "And for bringing me Yukina's letter in the first place. It was very brave and altruistic of you."

"Oh, it was nothing!" Botan said, smiling amiably.

"I am very grateful to you though," Rui said, sounding surprisingly insistent. "I wanted to give you something to show my appreciation for what you've done for me and for Yukina."

"You don't have to do that!" Botan said hurriedly. "I don't mind helping out at all!"

"Please, I'd like you to accept a token of my gratitude. It's not something of any material value, but I hope you like it."

Botan shook her head, at a loss for words. She felt a little guilty then as she did not like to think that Rui felt in any way indebted to her or that she was only helping Yukina because she sought monetary compensation.

"I drew a picture of you," Rui said.

"Of me?" Botan echoed, pointing at herself. "Really?"

"Yes," Rui replied. "And I'd like you to have it as my way of thanks."

"Oh alrighty, that sounds lovely!"

Botan smiled cheerfully, relieved that Rui had not cried her a pair of earrings as she had first feared might be the case.

"Here we are," Rui said, holding out a roll of paper towards Botan.

"Can I look at it now?" Botan asked.

Rui frowned at her as though she was asking something ridiculous.

"Of course," she said slowly.

"Oh goody!"

Botan took the scroll from Rui's hand and unravelled it, her smile fading as she revealed the illustration on the page. She was not entirely sure what she had expected it to look like, but what she did see took her breath away. She supposed that she had been expecting it to be cute and simple like Yukina's picture of her had been, but instead it was intricate in detail and a shocking likeness. But as perfect as the picture was, it was mostly the expression Rui had drawn on Botan's face that captivated her attention.

"Th-this is beautiful," Botan said quietly. "Oh, not that I mean that I think that I'm beautiful myself, I mean that your skill as an artist is just… Amazing! I love how you've drawn me! The look on my face is so… Calm and intelligent and strong!"

"I tried to draw you how I saw you," Rui replied.

Botan slowly lowered the picture, looking over the top of it at Rui, surprised to see that she was serious.

"I didn't think that anybody thought that I was calm, intelligent and strong," she said quietly. "In fact, I think everyone thinks that I'm neurotic, stupid and weak!"

"You were very strong, in character and in spirit, to risk coming her for a friend," Rui replied. "And you have a sense of calm about you, as though nothing would ever dampen your spirits. And from what I know of you and what Yukina tells me about you, clearly you have a natural, instinctual intelligence."

""Instinctual intelligence"?" Botan echoed.

"Yes. Perhaps you are not a great scholar, but you are a great problem solver, a quick-thinker."

Botan whimpered, looking down at Rui's drawing again.

"It's so beautiful and you're so nice to say those things about me!" she wailed.

"Goodness…" Rui muttered, running to the other side of the room.

"Nobody's ever said such nice things about me!" Botan continued, tears filling her eyes. "You've made me feel so special!"

Botan started to sob but was stopped from becoming hysterical when Rui reappeared in front of her, cradling a bowl beneath her face and watching her expectantly.

"What are you doing?" Botan asked her.

"…Catching your tears?" Rui replied.

"I don't cry hiruiseki," Botan pointed out. "I'm not special, I'm just the stupid ferry girl everyone laughs at!"

Botan began to cry openly and Rui visibly panicked.

"I-I didn't mean to upset you!" she said hurriedly. "I thought you would like the picture! I'll tear it up if you want!"

"No!" Botan sobbed. "I love the picture!"

"But you're crying!" Rui said. "I've upset you!"

"I'm crying because I'm so happy!" Botan replied.

"…That doesn't make any sense!"

"I'm also crying because I'm so sad!"

"Then please, let me destroy that picture!"

"No! I want to keep it forever and ever and ever! Nobody ever takes me seriously, I want to always remember that somebody did just once!"

"Oh my… Is there anything I can do for you to stop your pain?"

"Can I have a hanky?"

"…A what?"

"A hanky. To blow my nose."

"…To do what to your nose?"

Botan calmed down a little as she tried to consider why Rui was looking and sounding so confused. She sniffled and saw Rui wince visibly before tilting her head slightly as though fearfully fascinated with watching Botan cry.

"You cry stones," Botan said flatly. "And you live in constant cold. Your nose probably never runs, right? You don't know what a hanky is because you've never needed one."

Rui still looked perplexed but Botan knew that she was right.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. I think I was just overwhelmed by your kindness."

"Are people not normally kind to you?" Rui asked. "I can't understand why that would be, since you yourself are clearly very kind to others."

"People think I'm stupid and they can't be bothered with me," Botan replied. "No… That's not true… People do laugh at me a lot though. Even my own boss thinks I'm a fool sometimes."

"Is your boss a man?"

"Yes."

"I've never cared for men. The motto of our people is: "women create and men destroy", and it's true."

Botan smiled.

"Maybe I should come and live here instead," she said. "At least here I might be taken a little more seriously."

"I wish that you meant that, I truly do" Rui said quietly. "I would gladly take into my home."

"Y-you would?" Botan asked. "You really are a nice lady, you hardly even know me but still you would give me a home? How wonderful."

"If I was to be completely honest with you Botan, I would tell that I enjoyed drawing your portrait. You are a very attractive woman."

"Oh, well, you don't have to say that!"

"But I mean it. You are beautiful, and your lively spirit is so refreshing and inviting to me."

Botan hesitated, the look in Rui's eyes telling her that she was missing something.

"Have you ever been with a woman before, Botan?"

Botan stopped breathing, realisation suddenly clicking into place in her mind with alarming alacrity.

"Uh…" she began. "Well, no, not like that I haven't… B-but I haven't been with a man, either…"

"Have you ever thought about being with a woman?" Rui asked.

"No, I can't say that I have…"

"What a pity."

Botan's eyes slowly grew larger as she saw Rui dip her head slightly, a shadow of disappointment falling over her features.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry," Botan hurriedly apologised. "I never meant to offend you!"

"You didn't offend me," Rui assured her.

"Please, believe me, I'm incredibly flattered," Botan added. "If I were… I mean if I did want to be with a woman, I think I would be very lucky and very happy right now."

Rui smiled and Botan was relieved to see it: she had certainly never meant to offend Yukina's friend.

"But still you prefer men," Rui said, sounding still a little saddened despite her smile. "I wonder why. They are cruel, rough, vicious, violent and unthinking."

Botan shook her head.

"Only some are like that," she said. "And to be fair, there are a lot of women who are cruel, rough, vicious, violent and unthinking."

"Perhaps, but those are mostly male traits," Rui replied.

"None of the men I know are like that," Botan said.

"That's good," Rui said. "I wouldn't want a man like that around Yukina."

"Well, no worries there! Kuwabara is kind, gentle and very considerate. He is a man of honour and he has much love in his heart."

"I'm glad to hear it. And I appreciate that love is different for everyone. It's all relative really, isn't it?"

Botan frowned curiously at Rui.

"How we feel it, how we express it and how we share it differs from soul to soul," Rui explained.

"Why yes, that's very true…" Botan replied.

Botan began thinking about what Rui had just said, thinking about just how true it actually was: for a woman who lived amongst such emotionless peers, she certainly seemed to understand a lot about love, Botan mused.

"This is my letter to Yukina," Rui said, holding up a sealed envelope. "And these are some drawings I made for her. I needed time to get them just right which was why I asked for eight days. I hope Yukina didn't mind waiting so long for my reply."

"Oh no, not at all!" Botan said, before baulking as she caught sight of the second, larger envelope Rui was picking up. "Gracious, that's a lot of drawings!"

"Yes," Rui said, a strange look passing over her face for a brief instant. "Some things have happened in the village since Yukina left and it was important for me to make them clear to her."

Botan nodded slowly, though she was feeling both suspicious and frightened about what Rui's drawings might actually depict.

"Will you manage to carry all of these things?" Rui asked, waving her two envelopes in one hand and pointing at the table of behind Botan with the other.

"I'll tie them to my oar," Botan said, summoning her oar with a smile.

"Nothing gets you down," Rui said.

Botan dug through her pockets for something to tie the furs to her oar with, silently wondering why Rui's words sounded familiar. As she recovered a shoelace from one pocket her memory suddenly replayed the moment she had heard those words before: Kurama had said the very same thing to her the night they had gone to his apartment together.

"A friend of mine said the same thing recently," she said as she set about tying the furs to her oar. "And like you, he's very serious and serene."

Botan finished tying up the furs and picked up her oar with a smile.

"And bingo!" she said cheerfully.

Rui smiled at her again before handing her the envelopes. Botan slipped Rui's letter down the front of her coat along with the gloves from the table, but was forced to carry Rui's drawings and the cleats in her hands for practicality. Rui walked her back to the edge of the village, where Botan once more mounted her oar, checking that everything was securely in place.

"Goodbye, Botan," Rui said.

Botan met her eyes and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I'll come back after the baby is born," she offered. "I'm sure Yukina will want to write you another letter then."

Rui nodded.

"I would like that very much," she said.

Rui reached a hand out towards Botan but hesitated, her face looking infinitely sad again.

"Yukina will be fine," Botan said, reaching down and taking both of Rui's hands in hers. "And I'll come back one day, I promise."

Rui nodded but said nothing. Botan gave her hands a gentle squeeze before releasing them and righting her belongings resting on her legs. As she took off from the village she looked back and waved to Rui, who held up one hand in reply. Botan watched her until the clouds had obscured her into invisibility before turning to face forwards, focussing her attention and energy on flying back to the portal and back to Genkai's as fast as she could.

As she flew over demon world, Botan could not help but think that the life Rui lived was quite a miserable one. She decided that it was better to deal with small doses of cruelty, roughness, viciousness, violence and thoughtlessness for the joy of being able to experience the kindness, the gentleness, the passion and the consideration of good friends. She was sure that Yukina realised that too now, and she wondered if Rui would ever feel that way.

As she neared the portal, Botan looked down at the large envelope of drawings resting on her thighs. Part of her wanted to sneak a peek at them and another part of her was disgusted with herself for even thinking that way: they were addressed to Yukina, it would be wrong to open them.

But still, she had to wonder what they depicted.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Yusuke is having trouble with his future opponent in the demon world tournament, Koenma thinks he has a stalker, Kurama shows off a unique skill that irks Hiei, and Botan makes a radical decision that leads to a repeat of chapter 16 of this fic… Because I like recycling old crap... Look, it even has the same title! **Chapter 32 – The Proposal, Part 2**


	32. The Proposal, Part 2

**Recap:** Kuwabara told Botan not to waste her love on Hiei, Yukina confessed to having taken her relationship with Kuwabara to the next level and Botan returned to the ice village to collect Rui's letter, where Rui gave her a portrait she had drawn of her.

* * *

 **Chapter 32: The Proposal, Part 2**

Yusuke looked about himself, growing increasingly nervous at what he was seeing. He looked up at the roof, down at the floor, around all of the walls and he strategically avoided looking at the countless faces around him or what they were watching on the stage. He eventually took himself over to the bar, where he found the usual barman casually polishing glasses as though blissfully ignorant to what appeared to have happened to his place of work.

"Hey, buddy?" Yusuke said, leaning over the bar towards him. "What's the deal in here today? Where are all the women?"

The barman paused what he was doing and slowly lifted his eyes to Yusuke, giving him a look that made him feel more than a little stupid.

"Take a look around you, pal," he said slowly.

Yusuke glanced around himself before sighing and shaking his head in exasperation.

"That's not what I meant!" he snapped irritably. "I meant where are all the hot women? You know, the ones that take off their clothes and dance?"

The barman took a definite step back from the bar, and Yusuke suddenly became aware that he was surrounded by glaring eyes. He slowly glanced from side to side, seeing female demons glowering at him in both directions along the length of the bar.

"I'm not saying that you ladies aren't hot!" he said, laughing nervously. "It's just that this place is usually full of guys!"

"Do you prefer the company of men to women?" one cutting female voice asked him.

"Not like that I don't!" he replied, a sweat breaking out across his brow. "I was just trying to say that I come in here all the time, and I've never seen so many women in here before. Usually the women are just on the stage, where they belong."

Yusuke yelped, realising his mistake a little too late, and suddenly finding himself pinned against the bar by a crowd of enraged women.

"I just don't think that it's exactly tasteful to have dudes taking off their clothes when I'm trying to enjoy a drink!" he complained.

"But you're okay with watching women get naked?" a voice asked him.

Yusuke looked about himself, trying to pinpoint which of the many, many angry faces the voice belonged to. It sounded worryingly familiar, but he was not greatly concerned with who it might be, his primary concern being that he was now trapped by the bar by a hoard of angry women, and he was facing the stage where several male demons were stripped naked and dancing about with less grace and coordination than Kuwabara after a kiss from Yukina.

"Look, I just came here to meet my friends and have a drink!" he tried.

"Than do it quietly, or get out!" the same voice yelled at him.

Yusuke turned his head, his eyes instantly finding the source of the noise: she was tall, she was angry, she was dressed in skin-tight clothing, she had lime-green hair and she was completely plastered from booze already. She was, of course Kokou, Enki's darling wife.

"Urameshi," she said, arching her eyebrows in a starch fashion as their eyes met.

"Hey, you!" Yusuke replied, laughing nervously. "Big day tomorrow, are you sure you oughta be in here?"

Kokou narrowed her eyes at him, lifting up a tankard of ale that was bigger than her head and gulping down a sizeable volume of the contents before answering him.

"I could say the same to you," she slurred. "Raizen's boy… Raizen's prodigy… Raizen's "son"… Raizen's prodigal son, more like!"

She finished the contents of her enormous mug before slamming it down onto the bar and sliding it violently towards the barman.

"Fill it up!" she ordered.

She effortlessly shoved aside the women standing between herself and Yusuke, making her way over to stand directly in front of him. He tried to hold his breath and she leaned over him and breathed heavily, exhaling fumes that made his eyes water.

"You're not as good-looking as Raizen was," she concluded.

"Okay…" Yusuke said slowly. "Well since this is ladies' night, I'll think I'll just be on my way."

Yusuke started to try to leave the bar, but he was stopped by a pair of twin dog demons who were glaring at him threateningly.

"Excuse me ladies," he tried.

"Where are you going?" Kokou asked him, dropping an arm around his shoulders a little heavily. "Stay and have a drink with me, you ugly little son of a whore!"

Yusuke eyed Kokou over warily as he felt her weight tugging at his neck. She was so drunk she could barely stand, and he was sure that her main reason for holding onto him was to keep herself erect rather than a gesture of friendship.

"Barkeep!" she yelled.

"Ow!" Yusuke complained when her voice went mostly into his ear.

"Make that two!" she shouted, pointing three fingers at her empty glass. "Now Sasuke, listen here."

"It's Yusuke," Yusuke corrected her.

"Right, Usagi," Kokou said. "Now tell me this: just how like Raizen are you these days?"

"What?" Yusuke echoed.

He started to sweat again, severely disliking the direction his conversation with Enki's wife appeared to be taking.

"I mean, Raizen used to be able to do this thing with his…"

Kokou's voice trailed off and her shoulders began to lurch forwards. It looked like she might throw up over Yusuke, but frankly he was glad: he would rather she vomited on him than he had to listen to her finish her last sentence.

"Your drinks," the barman said, pushing two large glasses towards them.

"Great," Kokou said, slipping her arm from Yusuke's shoulder to reach for hers.

"Maybe you should lay off of these for tonight," Yusuke advised, pushing the mugs from her reach.

"Who the hell are you, my father?" she slurred in his face.

"Hey lady, you've got a big fight tomorrow, and I somehow don't think your opponent will go easy on you just because you've got a hangover!" Yusuke yelled at her impatiently.

"Well you've got an even bigger fight tomorrow, and I don't see you taking an early night, Urameshi!"

"An early night? It's three in the afternoon, you crazy, drunken bitch!"

"I resent that–"

Kokou stopped suddenly, touching a hand to her mouth, her cheeks ballooning.

"Point it somewhere else!" Yusuke yelled, grabbing her shoulders and turning her around to face away from him.

"I just need a fix!" she argued, turning around in a complete circle to face him again. "What's a good fix for feeling a little bit tipsy?"

"Drink less and take some alka-seltzer?" he grumbled sarcastically.

"And the survey says: hair of the dog!"

Kokou pushed past Yusuke and grabbed one of the mugs, dragging it over towards herself. She proceeded to practically dunk her face into it in her eagerness to drink more, at which Yusuke rolled his eyes and turned his head longingly in the direction of the exit. A glimmer of hope returned to his eyes and a smile lit his face as he spotted Kurama stumbling into the club.

"Hey, Kurama!" he called out, waving eagerly at his friend.

Kurama blinked at him curiously before slowly scanning around the room, his attention lingering on the stage for several seconds before he turned to Yusuke again, smirking smugly.

"Kurama?" Yusuke yelled, his voice breaking slightly. "Don't leave be alone here like this!"

Kurama's smirk widened and he pretended to look at a watch he was not actually wearing before shrugging and turning towards the door.

"Kurama, you dirty, fox-bastard!" Yusuke shouted. "Get back here and help me outta this mess!"

Kurama pretended to look put-upon, but crossed the room regardless and began easing his way through the throngs of women surrounding Yusuke.

"Hey Urameshi, do you know which miserable bastard I'm fighting tomorrow?" Kokou asked, resting an elbow on his shoulder as she spoke.

"Um, yeah," Yusuke replied, wondering if she knew herself before she was asking.

"I know who you're fighting too," Kurama said as he joined them.

"What are you?" Kokou asked, eying him over with a sneer.

"Do you think this is funny, Kurama?" Yusuke ground out, glaring at the red-haired fox demon.

"In an ironic sense, yes," Kurama replied. "On the bright side Yusuke, by tomorrow morning, Kokou should be perfectly sober. And I'm sure that then she will make a more than worthy opponent for you."

Yusuke groaned and Kokou laughed falsely at his side.

"I'm gonna kick your ass, mini-Raizen!" she said, poking a finger at Yusuke's chest.

Yusuke sneered at her and then glared at Kurama, who was unsubtly laughing behind one hand.

"Yeah, laugh it up," he grumbled. "Who are you fighting tomorrow anyway?"

"My greatest opponent yet," Kurama calmly replied.

Yusuke growled at Kurama and his typical vague deceptiveness before grabbing the giant drink Kokou had ordered for him. Maybe if he got suitably drunk it would blur his eyesight and he would not be subjected to the show on stage.

* * *

"I win again!" Koenma cheered.

Chu narrowed his eyes and leaned across the table towards Koenma.

"I reckon you're cheating, mate," he said in a low voice.

"And I reckon you are a sore loser!" Koenma snottily replied.

"You've cleaned me out, so you have!" Jin said, pulling his pockets inside-out.

"Double or nothing?" Chu offered.

Koenma's face straightened.

"What do you mean "double or nothing"?" he asked. "You mean if you win I give you double your money back and if you lose I get nothing?"

Chu pulled a face at Koenma.

"…Yeah? Wasn't that obvious?" he asked.

"We're flat broke," Jin added. "Why don't ya ask that little fella over there? He's been watching you all afternoon like a hawk, so he has!"

Koenma slowly turned his head in the direction Jin was pointing, unsurprised to see that Hiei was still perched on a nearby plant pot, glaring at him with a look that had already made George come close to wetting himself twice.

"He's a dark horse, ain't he?" Chu asked as Koenma turned back to him.

"Who is?" George asked.

Koenma rolled his eyes.

"Black Beauty," he growled. "Who do you think, you big blue simpleton?"

George began giving one of his speeches that was probably meant to invoke sympathy, but Koenma turned his attention back to Hiei, silently wondering why the fire demon had been living up to his name that day: he had being like Koenma's shadow all day, following him everywhere he went. There was probably a perfectly logical explanation for it, but Koenma could not even begin to guess what Hiei's motivations were. Koenma doubted even Kurama really understood how Hiei's mind worked, so he was certainly not going to hazard any guesses himself.

"Don't mind him," Koenma said, turning back to Chu. "Now do you have any more money, or is this game over?"

Chu sneered at Koenma and sat back hard in his seat.

"Game's over, mate," he said.

"You were a ruthless player, so you were," Jin said to Koenma. "And a damn dirty cheater, but I'll be fecked if I could figure out how."

"Come on mate, let's see if we can find Touya," Chu said, rising to his feet.

"Right you are," Jin agreed, standing up at his side.

"We'll win our money back from you some other time," Chu said to Koenma.

"See you later, you lying, cheating shite!" Jin said.

Koenma frowned up at them as they left.

"Did-did he just insult me?" he asked.

"I don't know Sir," George replied.

"It's so hard to tell when he says it so cheerfully…"

Koenma sighed and shook his head, calling over a passing waiter.

"Two bowls of tea," he said. "Black, no sugar."

"But I like sugar in my tea, Sir!" George moaned.

"One is for me, and could you give the other to that gentleman sitting in the mud other there?" Koenma told the waiter.

"The sulky one with the vertical hair?" the waiter asked.

"That's the one!" Koenma agreed.

The waiter nodded and set off to collect his order.

"But Sir, I'm thirsty!" George said. "All this gambling makes me sweat, I need to replenish my bodily fluids!"

"Half this restaurant can smell your bodily fluids, ogre!" Koenma snapped back.

"But Sir–"

"Shut-up, George."

George gasped, his eyes becoming sparkly.

"Sir!" he squealed. "You said my name!"

Koenma groaned, slapping a head against his bandana-covered forehead in despair.

"Your tea, Sir," the waiter said to him, placing a bowl of tea in front of him.

Koenma nodded his thanks, watching as the waiter cross over to Hiei and held out the second bowl of tea towards him. Hiei eyed the waiter over before hitting the underside of the bowl, spilling the boiling liquid over the waiter, who cried out and staggered back from him. Hiei then turned his attention back to Koenma, his glare no less intense but now also slightly threatening.

"It's going to be a long day…" Koenma muttered under his breath.

"Maybe you should go back to spirit world and catch up on your paperwork, Sir," George suggested.

Koenma shifted his eyes to George, glaring at in much the same way Hiei was glaring him.

"Ogre, would you like me to do to you what Hiei just did to the waiter?" he growled.

"No Sir!" George yelped.

"Then shut-up."

Koenma moved his eyes back to the scarlet eyes glaring at him and began sipping his tea, silently wondering how long Hiei would continue this behaviour.

* * *

By the time Botan got back to Genkai's temple, it was mid-evening already and the air was cooler, the sun starting to sink down towards the horizon. She was quite tired from expending spirit energy flying herself through the portal to demon world and back again, and of course the lengthy return journey to the ice village itself. She thought perhaps she would have a nap when she got back to her room, and then maybe return to demon world and spend the night in her hotel room: after all, the next day was round three of the tournament, and she wanted to get to the arena early, if only to see who Kurama's opponent he had gone to such great length to prepare for was.

Botan yawned shamelessly as she entered the temple, stumbling along the corridors noisily, her arms full with the various items she had brought back.

"Botan, is that you?" Kuwabara called to her from the kitchen.

"Yes," she replied.

"Really? Because you sound like a herd of elephants from here!"

Botan yelped out a gasp of indignation, glaring at Kuwabara angrily.

"Yukina's asleep, keep the noise down!" he added.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Botan sarcastically replied. "What a gentleman you are keeping things quiet for her! You're such a gentleman, you ought to be helping me carry this stuff!"

"Gees, what's your problem?" Kuwabara grumbled, walking over to join her.

"Just carry this," she replied, pushing her oar against his chest.

"Eew!" he yelped, grabbing the handle of her oar and holding it out at arm's length from his body. "What kind of animal did you have to kill to make that?" he asked, pointing at the furs tied by the blade of her oar.

"It's something Rui gave me," she replied. "And of course she gave me her letter to Yukina."

Botan held up the envelope to indicate her point.

"Wow, Yukina will be really happy to open this," Kuwabara said, taking the envelope from her.

"And she gave me this, too!" Botan added, holding up the enormous file of drawings Rui had handed her.

"Whoa, what the hell is all that?" Kuwabara asked.

"Pictures!"

"Pictures? What sort of pictures?"

"Well, I don't know actually. Rui just said that she had drawn some pictures for Yukina."

"Yukina draws beautiful pictures."

Botan's face twisted involuntarily. Kuwabara would of course think that Yukina's pictures were beautiful because they portrayed him as a man of infinite good looks, she thought wryly.

"She learned to draw from Rui," Botan pointed out. "So whatever is in that big envelope will be well-drawn. In fact, Rui drew a picture of me."

Botan reached a hand up her sleeve and retrieved the rolled up drawing Rui had gifted her with. She hesitated then, feeling suddenly as though she wanted to cry again just looking at the paper the picture was drawn on.

"Here, have a look for yourself," she said, pushing the scroll towards Kuwabara.

He took it from her and unrolled it, eying the picture over.

"That's really well-drawn, but it's not really like you, is it?" he said.

"It's a perfect likeness!" Botan snapped back.

"Not really," he said, shaking his head. "She's made you look really sensible and intelligent and wise."

Botan snatched the sketch back from Kuwabara and rolled it up again, avoiding looking at it herself to stop herself from crying again.

"Well that's how Rui saw me," she said tightly.

"Rui obviously didn't really see you…" Kuwabara muttered under his breath.

"I heard that!" Botan yelled.

"Keep your voice down, you'll wake Yukina!"

Botan sighed in defeat: she did not want to wake Yukina, but she was angered by Kuwabara's words.

"I'll have you know that Rui thinks I am calm, intelligent and strong," she said, stuffing the drawing up her sleeve. "And I will treasure that drawing because I know that she is right!"

"You're not exactly calm, you just yelled at me for saying that picture didn't look like you!" Kuwabara argued. "And you're always yelling at me and nagging me, a calm person wouldn't do that! And you're not strong, that's why we always have to rescue you! And you can be pretty dumb sometimes: you don't even know what oral sex is."

Botan opened her mouth to admonish Kuwabara but found herself suddenly feeling awkward and afraid as she remembered what Yukina had told her the day before: she had had sex with Kuwabara, and that meant there was a chance she was carrying his child.

"Are you saying I'm neurotic, stupid and weak?" she asked instead.

"Yeah, but you're still a nice person, Botan," he replied.

"…Thanks a lot, Kuwabara…"

"Don't sulk with me!"

Botan ignored him, dumping the items she had brought back with her before walking off, not even caring that Kuwabara still had her oar. She kept walking until she found Keiko on her own by the television in the living room, watching it with the volume down exceptionally low, presumably to keep Kuwabara happy.

"Keiko?" Botan said, sitting down next to her. "Have a look at this and tell me what you think."

Botan removed the scrolled drawing from her sleeve and passed it to Keiko, turning her head away while Keiko examined it.

"It's very well done," Keiko concluded. "Did you draw this?"

"No," Botan replied.

"Well I know it wasn't Yukina, I've seen how she draws people, and it's nothing like this," Keiko said. "This picture makes you look really brave and smart."

Botan narrowed her eyes slightly, but she kept her head turned away from Keiko.

"Do you think it's an accurate expression for me?" she asked quietly.

"Not really," Keiko bluntly replied. "Usually you're grinning or laughing or talking about something. It is a good drawing, though."

"Describe me in three words," Botan said, folding her arms and squaring her jaw resiliently as she anticipated further insults.

"Well… I guess I'd have to say fun, kind and a bit ditzy," Keiko concluded.

"Not calm, intelligent or strong?" Botan asked.

"Definitely not," Keiko replied. "Though that is how you look in this picture."

Botan made a small noise of annoyance, snatching the picture from Keiko and standing up again.

"Where are you going?" Keiko asked her.

"To see Shizuru," Botan replied, stomping out of the room.

Keiko called something after her about a film and Kuwabara, but Botan ignored her, continuing through the temple and out onto the front porch, where she found Shizuru sitting on the steps smoking a cigarette – Kuwabara had insisted that his sister smoke outside only since Yukina had fallen pregnant.

"Hey there," Shizuru greeted her. "If it isn't my favourite blue-haired Barbie girl!"

Botan carefully sat down by her side, suspecting that she would not get any more satisfaction out of talking to Shizuru than she had gleaned from talking to Keiko.

"What do you think of this?" she asked, passing the picture to Shizuru.

Shizuru studied it for a long time in silence before finally answering.

"The person who drew this suffers a great sadness," she said.

"You can sense that from the drawing?" Botan asked, momentarily forgetting her objectives in showing Shizuru the picture. "But how?"

"I can just feel it," Shizuru replied. "But even if I couldn't feel it, I would know the person who drew this was feeling dark. You never look like this."

Botan screwed up her face in anger, but turned her head so that Shizuru would not see her reaction.

"It's too focussed to be you," Shizuru continued. "Anyone who knew you for more than five minutes would have drawn you differently. This is so sensible and serene, and you're so… Erratic."

"Well some people happen to disagree with you, Miss Kuwabara!" Botan snapped, snatching the picture back and standing up again.

"I didn't mean it as an insult," Shizuru said gently. "It's just not who you are. But we all like you the way you are, why would you want to try to be something that you're not?"

Botan allowed herself to look at the picture in her hands for the first time since Rui had first given it to her. It truly was a beautiful piece of art, but mainly so to Botan's eyes because it showed a side of her that she wanted to believe existed, a side that she wanted people to see.

"Lighten up," Shizuru said to her. "My brother won't let us put the karaoke machine on, but we're gonna watch a film. Join us."

Botan rolled the picture up again and turned from Shizuru.

"Surely you're not sulking, are you Botan?" Shizuru asked. "Come on, it's no big deal! It's just a picture!"

"It's a big deal to me," Botan muttered, walking briskly back into the temple.

Botan took herself all the way to the room she had been staying in the night before, standing herself in front of a full-length mirror and eying herself over critically. She was still wearing her winter clothing following her trip to the ice village and she looked overheated, her face flushed. She started to change out of her layers of clothing, but as she did so, she realised it was not the clothes that had been making her face red.

She was upset that nobody took her seriously.

She was not so upset that she was about to cry again like she had in front of poor Rui, but she was definitely sick of listening to other people's opinions about her. She was really, really sick of listening to other people's opinions. It was all she had ever done, and she decided that in this once instance, she was going to ignore them all and go with her instincts; and that thought brought a smile to her face.

* * *

Yusuke smoothed his hands over his hair and tugged at his collar, flicking it up around his neck. He then pushed his hands into his coat pockets and relaxed his shoulders, walking casually into the hotel restaurant. At his side he sensed that Kurama was still amused by what had happened earlier at the strip club, but he chose to ignore it, instead setting his sights on Koenma, who had an interestingly large pile of money sitting on the table in front of him.

"Hey, you're living dangerously, are you not?" he asked as he reached the table.

Koenma looked up at him blankly as though he had not even heard what he had said. Yusuke took a seat opposite him and was shortly joined by Kurama, who immediately turned around in his seat to look at something behind Yusuke's back.

"Not that I don't think that it's a huge improvement, but is there a reason you're so quiet?" Yusuke asked, leaning over the table towards Koenma.

"I'm thinking," Koenma quietly replied. "You should try it some time."

Yusuke pulled a face at him.

"Well at least now I know you're the same cheeky little bastard you usually are," he grumbled.

"How long has he been there like that?" Kurama asked, turning in his chair to face Koenma.

"As long as I've been here," Koenma replied. "He's been staring so hard this whole time I don't even think he's blinked yet."

"What are you two talking about?" Yusuke asked, turning in his seat to look back in the direction Kurama had appeared to be looking earlier.

At first Yusuke could not see anything out of the ordinary, but on his second survey of the area he saw something so obviously out of place he wondered how he could have missed it the first time around.

"What's his problem?" he asked, squinting at across the room at Hiei, who was sitting in the dirt of a plant pot glaring across the room at their table.

"No idea," Koenma replied. "But he's been like that all day."

Yusuke turned back to face Koenma.

"So then why don't you just go over there and ask him what he wants?" he asked. "Hiei likes a direct approach – in fact, it's the only thing he understands. You won't get anywhere with Hiei without getting in his face and just being completely direct."

Koenma sighed.

"That's where you and I differ greatly, Yusuke," he said patiently. "A direct, in-your-face approach may be fine for a fighter like you, but for a diplomat like myself the pen truly is mightier than the sword. And besides, Hiei is the one tracking me. I have nothing to gain from confronting him, except maybe a well-placed insult or a punch in the face."

Yusuke shrugged.

"Then let the little guy stew in his own repressed anger," he said.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," Koenma replied.

* * *

Botan felt a lot more comfortable dressed once more in her favourite pink kimono. She took down her hair and laid aside Yukina's ribbon ready to return to her when she woke up – though Botan doubted she would still be at Genkai's temple when that happened.

Botan hummed a tune that she thought she might never remember the name of as she headed into the bathroom to retrieve a hairbrush. She positioned herself in front of a mirror and began brushing her hair, her eyes wandering from her reflection to something that was sat on the edge of the bath. Her actions slowed as she realised that she was looking at Keiko's make-up bag. It was not something terribly out of place or unexpected to find in the bathroom when Keiko had been staying there, but nevertheless Botan found herself staring at it with a sense of forbidden wonder. She had never worn make-up before, though she had often seen others do, including even Ayame. It had never even crossed her mind to try applying any, but she suddenly found herself wanting to at that moment.

Botan quickly finished brushing her hair and gathered it up on top of her head, tying it into her typical high ponytail, before grabbing up Keiko's make-up bag and opening it. She shamelessly tipped the contents out into the sink, clawing through them curiously. She eventually picked a lipstick, forgetting to check the mirror as she applied it and promptly frightening herself when she did catch a glimpse of her reflection and saw that she was suddenly sporting garishly red lips. She shook her head and quickly wiped the lipstick from her lips with tissue, making a poor job of replacing the lid to the lipstick in the process. She picked up a bottle of mascara next, humming to herself as she unscrewed the lid and withdrew the wand. She remembered to consult the mirror as she painted her eyelashes, stopping after she had done one eye and smiling in delight as she compared the difference between her two eyes in the mirror. This was fun, she decided, and she moved onto her next eye.

Botan played around with Keiko's make-up a little longer, breaking a lipstick, spilling rouge and smearing mascara on the mirror but eventually finding herself looking at her own face made-up the way she had seen the other girl's do when they had something special planned: which was perfect, she told herself, since she had something very special planned for that evening.

* * *

"You son of a bitch, Kurama," Yusuke said, shaking his head.

"It is a skill of patience," Kurama calmly replied.

"I dunno mate, I reckon it takes a mighty good technique and all," Chu said.

"That is quite impressive," Koenma admitted.

"It's nothing, really," Kurama said.

The others gave him sceptical looks, but Kurama did not notice them, his attention focussed on the intricate and ever-expanding tower he was constructing on the table.

"This would not work if the cards were old and well-handled," he said, placing two more cards onto the tower. "But it's really not as difficult as it looks."

"It looks impossible," Yusuke said, shaking his head. "So even if it's not as difficult as it looks, I bet it's still really, really hard."

"Hn, it's stupid."

The others all turned to Hiei, who had suddenly appeared in a seat by the end of the table.

"Hiei, nice of you to join us," Kurama said, offering him a small smile.

"What you're doing is pointless," Hiei spat back. "It's ridiculous and laughable."

"I like the challenge it presents," Kurama smoothly replied, placing another card. "It is a test of my patience and requires a lightness of touch that perhaps does not come as second nature, but I believe the rewards are worth the effort."

"Well now I know that you're just being stupid," Hiei sneered. "You've wasted so much time and effort on it but it's still fragile and vulnerable. The slightest miscalculation on your part or outside interference will destroy it completely."

"That is the gamble I choose to take. Surely even a straight-thinking person like yourself can appreciate that anything worth the having must be worked hard to achieve."

"Why bother when there are plenty of other things to occupy your time?"

Kurama smiled, his eyes shifting from the cards to watch Hiei.

"We are, I assume, still just talking about building a house of cards?" he asked, allowing himself a small smile.

Hiei's face dropped and his eyes took on a look that warned he was close to losing his temper.

"Of course we are," Kurama said, moving his eyes back to his task.

"A house of cards falls very easily," Hiei ground out. "I don't understand why anyone would waste their time on such a pointless venture."

Hiei banged a fist on his end of the table – considering his actual strength it was a surprisingly light gesture, but forceful enough to make the glasses on the table jump slightly and Kurama's tall tower of cards fall.

"Aw!" Rinku complained. "I had my money on him making it three rows taller!"

Kurama calmly moved about the table and floor surrounding it, gathering up the scattered cards. Koenma, Yusuke, Chu, Jin and Rinku helped him in his task, but Hiei merely watched on, his face no less intense.

"You made your point very well, Hiei," Kurama said once all the cards were back in a single pile on the table. "But the interesting thing about a house of cards is that whilst it is fragile and easily broken apart, it can also be rebuilt with the application of patience, good judgement and skilled hands."

Hiei narrowed his eyes to glower at Kurama, who merely started building the tower again, setting up the base row of cards on the table.

"I don't like games," he eventually said.

"Neither do I," Kurama replied, his voice a pitch lower than usual.

"Hn."

Hiei turned his head from the table and Kurama continued building the tower: but everyone else around the table noticed that something was distinctly different in the air around them.

* * *

Botan walked swiftly along the hall towards the front door. She had not bothered saying goodbye to Kuwabara, Keiko or Shizuru, but in a way she was still sulking with them over what they had said about her picture. She had left everything at the temple except the picture, which she had rolled up and concealed in the folds of her kimono: she had decided that she would always carry it with her, because even if nobody else ever saw that side of her, she would always have a reminder that somebody once had.

"Botan!"

Botan stopped, barely a few steps away from the door, torn between frustration at being caught leaving and guilt as she realised that it was Yukina calling after her.

"Botan, wait, please!"

Botan slowly turned around, her face softening as she saw Yukina hurrying down the stairs as fast as she could.

"Oh sweetie, be careful that you don't fall!" Botan called up to her.

"Botan, please don't go!" Yukina called back, clutching at the handrail as she stumbled down the steps.

"It's alright, I'll be back tomorrow night after the third round of the tournament ends!" Botan assured her.

"Oh please don't go! Please don't, no more pain!"

Botan frowned, so taken aback by Yukina's words that she barely noticed when the little ice maiden nearly fell down the last few steps.

"Don't do it, please, I beg of you!" Yukina wailed, staggering along the hall towards Botan. "If you do, this night will end in tears, and I couldn't bear it! Please don't do this!"

Botan frowned down at Yukina in disbelief: she looked close to tears herself, and Botan could not understand why.

"I'm just going back to demon world!" she said.

"Please!" Yukina begged, grabbing at Botan's sleeves. "No more pain!"

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Botan echoed. "I'm only going back to watch the next round of the demon world tournament!"

"Please don't go," Yukina said weakly.

"What's going on out here?" Kuwabara asked, stepping into the hallway.

"I-I don't know," Botan replied honestly. "I think Yukina might have had a bad dream or something."

"Yukina my love, are you alright?" Kuwabara cried, running down the hall towards her.

"Don't do it, Botan!" Yukina whispered, looking up at Botan again.

"You should be resting!" Kuwabara said, gently pulling Yukina's hands from Botan's sleeves. "Let me take you back up to bed."

"Please don't let Botan go," she said, turning to Kuwabara. "Please, I can't stand the pain!"

Kuwabara frowned at her before turning to Botan and eying her over suspiciously.

"What pain?" he asked Botan.

"I think she had a nightmare, she's not making any sense," Botan whispered back. "I have to go, but I'll be back tomorrow evening. Take care of her while I'm gone."

"Of course I'll take care of her!" Kuwabara replied a little snappily.

"Thanks," Botan said, turning from them and opening the front door.

"No!" Yukina yelled.

Botan staggered a little, surprised to hear a sound so loud and forceful leave Yukina.

"This night will end in tears, I know it!"

Botan looked back over her shoulder at Yukina, finding her still looking unnecessarily distraught.

"But I'm not sad," Botan told her. "In fact, I'm quite happy. Don't worry about me, Yukina."

Yukina whimpered quietly and Botan hurriedly moved outside, summoning her oar and leaping onto it before shooting up into the sky. As she neared the temple steps she took one last look back at the temple, seeing Yukina standing by the edge of the porch, reaching a hand up towards her. It was really quite strange, Botan thought to herself. She genuinely did not feel sad because finally she had made a decision about something and she was determined to see it through with a smile on her face.

And besides, she told herself as she neared the portal to demon world, it was not like Yukina knew what she was thinking and nor was Yukina a psychic who could predict what would happen in Botan's future.

Botan felt confident again as she flew towards her goal, and she was able to smile: but as the hotel building came into sight ahead of her, her confidence began to wane again, and indecision once more gripped her mind.

* * *

"There's a crazy lass dipping and diving about in the sky outside, so there is," Jin said.

"Really?" Rinku asked, leaning out of the hotel doors to peer up at sky.

"Do you guys have to go now?" Yusuke asked Chu.

"Yeah, we want to get an early night," Chu replied. "Big day for us all tomorrow, mate."

Yusuke nodded a reluctant agreement, watching Chu walk over to join Jin and Rinku by the doorway.

"Crikey!" Chu said, leaning outside. "There really is a Sheila flying about out there!"

Yusuke found his curiosity to be too much, and he moved over to join them, leaning out to have a look for himself. The sky was dark already, though it was barely past nightfall, but despite the darkness he could still clearly see a pink and blue figure zipping about erratically above the street, illuminated by the streetlights around them.

"That's just Botan!" he said, waving a hand dismissively at Jin. "Just ignore her, she's always acting weird like that."

Jin looked less than convinced, but Yusuke walked back into the reception lounge, where he found Koenma asleep on an armchair with George standing by his side looking exhausted, Kurama sitting next to him looking out a nearby window at the sky – possibly watching Botan – and Hiei walking towards the doors.

"Hey, where are you going, short-ass?" Yusuke asked him as he passed by.

"I'm going to bed," Hiei replied, a hint of a smile on his face as he spoke.

Yusuke snorted in amusement and started to make a wisecrack about Hiei going to bed early but stopped short as Kurama suddenly appeared ahead of him and grabbed a hand tightly into Hiei's arm, halting his progress. Hiei looked down at Kurama's hand on his arm before slowly lifting his head to lock eyes with him.

"It's not like you to take an early night, Hiei," Kurama said, his tone slightly strained.

"Hn, it's not your concern what I do," Hiei replied. "Release me and get out of my way."

Hiei tried to pull his arm free but Kurama tightened his hold.

"Hiei, I strongly advise you not to do this," he said quietly.

Hiei glared back at him, apparently wondering how Kurama thought that he knew what his intentions were.

"If you do, this night will end in tears, I guarantee it," Kurama added.

"Hn."

Hiei smiled, closing his eyes and lowering his head.

"Do you think that I care about that?" he said.

"You ought to," Kurama insisted. "You will regret this if you go through with it, I suggest you think before you act."

"Like you always do?"

Hiei opened his eyes and lifted them to Kurama once more, his smile fading.

"Take your hand off of me fox, or I will break it off," he growled.

The two remained perfectly still and Yusuke began to wonder if they were about to fight: he had never seen the two fight physically before, and even though they ought not to do such a thing the night before the next round of the tournament, a part of him wanted to see them go at it.

"Be it on your head," Kurama eventually said, roughly releasing Hiei's arm. "I gave you a fair warning, there is nothing more I can do for you now. I just hope this doesn't affect your performance tomorrow."

"Nothing could possibly affect my performance tomorrow," Hiei shot back. "Tomorrow will be a fight to the death, and I don't intend to die tomorrow."

"Have it your way," Kurama coldly replied.

"I always do," Hiei growled.

Hiei gave Kurama once last sneer before turning on his heel and marching outside, pushing his way past Jin and Chu. He walked out into the middle of the street before stopping and tilting back his head to look up at the ditzy ferry girl flicking about in the sky. He folded his arms as he listened to her muttering and meowing to herself frantically. She was attracting quite a bit of attention with the fuss she was making and frankly she was quickly getting on his nerves.

"Woman!" he yelled.

She instantly stopped, hovering on the spot, leaning forwards to look down at him.

"Shut-up and get down here!" he shouted up to her.

"That's no way to speak to a lady, Hiei!" she called back.

Her voice was shaky and uneven and there was something distinctly different about her, though he could not quite pinpoint what it was.

"Get down here!" he yelled again.

"No!" she cried. "Not until you ask me nicely, you big meanie!"

Hiei growled, baring his teeth at her. Her ability to fly was sometimes infuriating to him and never more so than now: he could not possibly reach her up there and she knew it.

"Get down here!" he tried again.

"Ask me nicely!" she said again.

"Get down here or I'll blast you down!" he warned.

She said nothing but apparently his threat had not concerned her, as she remained in the same position, frustratingly out of his reach.

"She's a stubborn little mare."

Hiei turned his head sharply, finding himself to be no longer alone watching the ferry girl's antics. The one who had spoken was of no great interest to him – since he was basically just a drunk – but the small child with him caught Hiei's attention and brought a smile to his face once more.

"You!" Hiei barked, pointing a finger at the boy. "Wrap your yo-yos around that woman's oar and drag her down out of the sky!"

The boy's eyes doubled in size and he frantically shook his head.

"No way, you crazy bastard!" he said. "I would never use my powers on a non-fighter, especially not a woman!"

Hiei growled at the boy, but he stood his ground.

"No way!" he said again.

"You know I might be fixing to help you," a voice offered.

Hiei turned his head to his other side, seeing an unreasonably cheerful red-haired troll, whose chipper demeanour almost put the ferry girl's to shame.

"I can control the wind so I can," he said.

Hiei grinned darkly.

"Yes, you can…" he said. "Use your powers to blast her off her oar!"

"No, no!" the troll replied with a frown. "That's not what I was talking about at all!"

Hiei growled impatiently but the troll merely grinned at him in reply.

"I was thinking that since the lady won't come down here to you, why don't I send you up there to her?" he offered.

Hiei took a step back from the troll, eying him over in disgust. What a ridiculous idea, he thought to himself.

"It's real simple like," the troll continued, apparently unaffected by Hiei's response. "I'll just be creating a wind that'll lift you up there, and then you can encourage her to come back down with you."

Hiei looked up at the ferry girl thoughtfully. She was sitting on her oar of course, mostly towards one end of it, a length of handle and the blade of the oar stretching out to one side of her. He turned to the wind demon and started to smile.

"Alright," he said. "Send me up there. But only create enough wind to get me up there. Don't hold me there and don't pull me back down, no matter what."

"Okay…"

Hiei nodded and shortly felt a wind stirring around his ankles before slowly lifting him up into the air. He turned his attention to the ferry girl, watching in interest as her face slowly changed from a sulky pout to a look of surprised panic.

He wondered what sort of look her face would take by the time he was finished with her.

* * *

Botan tensed, suddenly realising that Hiei was moving too slowly and rising too high to be jumping at her.

"What are you doing?" she demanded as his head started to come level with her feet.

He said nothing, but the grin on his face was not a friendly one, and that did little to ease her apprehension. She could have flown away from him – she should have flown away from him – but she was as fascinated as she was terrified, and so she stayed where she was. She had no idea what he was actually doing or what he wanted, but she knew the reason why she was there, and it involved getting close to Hiei, so she opted to stay still and let him make the next move.

He continued rising through the air until his head was level with hers, at which point she felt the air go still and he suddenly started to drop back down. She started to reach for him to stop him falling to the ground but stopped, grabbing desperately at her oar instead as his hands locked around her ankles and pulled her legs down, pulling her off of her oar. She screamed out, clutching desperately at her oar, somehow spinning over the top of it, her legs tangling over Hiei's shoulders for a brief instant before he released her and dropped to the ground. She managed to right herself in the air, lying face-down along the length of her oar, and she looked down to check that Hiei had made it safely to the ground, all the while wondering what had just happened and why.

Hiei was standing on the ground below her, grinning up at her; but there was something odd about him. In fact, Botan thought, her heart missing a beat, Hiei had something in his mouth. His teeth were clamped around something that, even from the height she was stationed at, looked worryingly familiar. Behind Hiei, Chu, Jin and Rinku cheered out a series of phrases that meant absolutely nothing to Botan. She slowly moved one hand from her oar to her hip, smoothing the fabric of her kimono against her skin as she slid her hand backwards. As she completed her task, she wondered why she had bothered checking: it was blatantly obvious that the pink frilly object in Hiei's mouth was her panties.

And as though to confirm that he had somehow managed to steal her underwear during their confusing tussle in the air, he spat the material into one hand before holding it up in the air and splaying his fingers apart, stretching her panties back into shape as it did so, revealing a set of tooth-marks in the fabric.

Botan growled in frustration, humiliation and pure anger as the three demons around Hiei began laughing and cheering his actions. With shaking hands she pushed herself up and swung one leg over her oar to sit in her usual, side-saddle pose, smoothing her kimono down over her knees to hide where it had been so unceremoniously pulled open. She then took a deep breath and sighed the air back out slowly, trying to calm herself before she began descending towards the ground. As she neared Hiei he leapt back from her and stuffed her panties into his pocket, bringing another cheer from the onlookers, before folding his arms over his chest.

Boten dropped to the ground and glared at Chu, Jin and Rinku until they all turned away nervously. She then turned her eyes to Hiei, who was grinning at her far too smugly for her liking.

"You're an ass," she growled out.

His grin dropped and his face visibly faltered as he was obviously shocked at her sudden use of language she never normally stooped to.

"Hn," he eventually recovered. "I don't care what you think."

"I know you don't," she replied. "But it all ends tonight."

Hiei faltered slightly again but Botan did not hesitate. Keeping one hand firmly gripped around her oar she held the other out towards him, her palm facing upwards, and gave him an expectant look. He looked at her hand briefly before he snorted out a short laugh and met her eyes again.

"I'm not giving them back," he said flatly.

"I don't want them back," she replied. "I want you to give me your hand."

Hiei's eyebrows inched upwards, his curiosity obvious despite his best attempts to conceal it behind a confident smirk.

"Give me your hand," she said again.

Hiei unfolded his arms and started to reach one hand out towards her, pausing part-way there to eye her over suspiciously. She did not so much as blink as she waited for him to comply, keeping her hand held out and keeping her eyes on his. Eventually he placed his hand onto hers, his touch surprisingly light: she was unsure if this was because he had decided to be gentle with her after being so disgustingly rough or if he was preparing himself to snatch his hand away again if he did not like her next actions. She decided to remove that option from him and curled her fingers around, capturing his hand in her fist.

"Tonight I am going to take you on a journey," she said.

"What?" he echoed, a vague sense of concern passing over his eyes.

"I am going to lead you down the slow road to your ruin," she replied.

"Whuh?" Hiei grunted, his face twisting further.

"You may remember me as your best kept secret and your biggest mistake," she continued, ignoring his increasing anxiety. "But tonight, fire boy, you will be my downfall."

Hiei slowly found his smile again. Botan swung her oar around and sat back onto it, tugging at Hiei's hand.

"Now get on, before I change my mind again!" she snapped.

Hiei did not hesitate to leap forwards, releasing her hand and standing onto the blade of her oar, folding his arms and standing perfectly straight.

"There are safer ways to travel," Botan grumbled as she rose into the air. "But look who I'm talking to…"

She sped off over the city rooftops, and Hiei barely flinched at the shift in direction, somehow maintaining his balance despite the slight downward angle her oar flew at. She saw him smile slightly as she watched him, and she found herself smiling then too. Tonight, she decided, they would both get exactly what they wanted from each other.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (Chapters 33-37 are quite hectic and kind of all tie together…) Hiei and Botan run away together to enjoy a night of passion, Yusuke loses his temper with Kurama's cryptic words but Koenma doesn't seem so confused, and Yukina learns some shocking secrets from Rui's letter. **Chapter 33 – The House of Cards**

 **A/N:** Thanks again to all reviewers, I love you all, it seriously makes me happy to see reviews appearing and it does help when I have lulls in inspiration (which can happen quite frequently).


	33. The House of Cards

**A/N: Mild sexual content in this chapter, you have been warned.**

 **Recap:** Botan delivered Rui's letter and was upset that nobody appreciated the picture Rui had drawn of her, and then, despite Yukina warning her not to, she went to demon world and propositioned Hiei, who, despite Kurama warning him not to, accepted, and together they flew off into the night…

* * *

 **Chapter 33: The House of Cards**

 _I don't wanna be your friend  
I just wanna be your lover  
No matter how it ends  
No matter how it starts  
Forget about your house of cards  
And I'll do mine  
And fall off the table  
Get swept under  
Denial, denial  
(House of Cards, Radiohead)_

Hiei had felt quite confident when he had first stepped onto the woman's oar. She seemed different that night, surer of herself and more direct. He could tell that this time she would not run away from him, this time he finally had her exactly where he wanted her, and finally this madness of her occupying his mind would come to an end. And although he had waited a long time to get what he wanted from her and a few more minutes ought to be insignificant, the length of time she spent flying him away from her hotel quickly became unbearable and he began to lose what little patience he had.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded suddenly.

"Away from the others," she replied, her voice barely reaching his ears as she kept her head forwards and the wind quickly dissipated the sound.

"This is far enough!" he insisted. "Take us down!"

"Not yet," she replied.

Hiei growled angrily, baring his teeth at the back of her head. She had sounded like she knew where she was going, but she had flown them out of the city and far beyond it to a largely uninhabited forest. There was likely no other life around for miles, they could land at any time and be completely isolated and hidden by the trees and the dark of night: but still the woman was pushing on, flying surprisingly fast and focussing a lot of energy on her efforts to take them somewhere specific. Hiei started to convince himself that it did not really matter where she was taking him, just so long as she upheld her promise when they got there: but as the familiar distortion of a portal began to appear directly ahead of them, Hiei started to change his mind.

"Are you taking us to the living world?" he asked.

She did not answer him, but she did not need to. Looking down he could see the road carved out by the border patrol winding through the trees to meet them up ahead, confirming that they were heading for a passage to the living world. He hoped she was not taking him to the old lady's temple: he could only think of one thing that would stop him from following through with sating his appetite for the ferry girl and that was doing it in the same building his pregnant little sister was living in. Hiei was about to question the woman on the matter when she suddenly meowed out a strange word and sharply turned her oar to one side and began dropping down towards the road.

Hiei stumbled slightly but did not come close to falling: nevertheless, he did not appreciate being made to look foolish like that, and so he glared at the woman accusingly.

"I have to fetch a little snack," she explained as she caught his eye. "Now you just wait here."

She slid off her oar, which clattered to the ground without her there to keep it afloat, again leaving Hiei stumbling to find his footing. By the time he had righted himself and located her again she was doing something that made him forget why he was angry at her: she was stalking along the edge of the road, her baseball bat raised at her shoulder and a murderous gleam in her eyes. Hiei watched on in a state of perplexed fascination as she swung her bat down onto a large maggot. She proceeded to beat the parasite until it stopped moving before bending down to pick it up. She then walked back over to her oar, her baseball bat vanishing, and smiled at Hiei in her usual, cheerful manner, as though what she had done was perfectly ordinary and predictable.

"There, I'm ready now," she said, picking up her oar and hooking the limp maggot over the handle.

Hiei stepped onto the blade again, watching her carefully as she sat down and took them up into the air. He was starting to think that he knew why she had finally agreed to just have sex with him: apparently she had completely lost her mind.

* * *

Botan began to chew on her lip nervously as she flew over Kyoto city. She had not looked at Hiei since stopping to collect a live, demon world born snack for Hana, but she suspected that he was starting to figure out where she was taking him. It was, she realised, quite a risky decision, but her choices of venues had been quite limited: Genkai's temple and face Yukina, Kuwabara, Keiko and Shizuru; her hotel room and face Koenma, George, Kurama and Yusuke; Mukuro's fortress – which was where she supposed Hiei lived – and face Mukuro; spirit world and face Ayame, all the other ferry girls and the ogres and possibly even King Enma himself; or simply find a secluded location outdoors and proceed to behave like animals. Botan was determined that the night would happen on her terms, and her terms were that it happened indoors, in a bed and safe from prying eyes.

As they landed across the street from Kurama's apartment block, Hiei said nothing.

Botan banished her oar and together they walked across the road to the entrance. He did not even question why she had a key for the door, and she did not mention it to him. She was silently glad when they got inside the building and all was quiet, as her one potential concern about going to Kurama's apartment had been that she might have to explain to his nosy neighbours why she – the mysterious Hana, as they thought she was – was taking another man up to Shuichi's apartment. Her other concern was that Kurama had left any evidence of his experiments with the Fruit of Previous Life lying around, or that he had accidentally left his bedroom door open.

Botan took a deep breath as she reached the door marked "Minamino, Shuichi" before unlocking it and pushing it open. She stepped in ahead of Hiei, hurriedly checking that the bedroom door was firmly closed and scanning around the kitchen area for any signs of half-drunk fruit juice before turning back to the door, finding Hiei standing facing her directly beneath that gaudy three-dimensional picture of an Arctic fox. As though sensing why she was looking at him, he closed the front door and locked it in place. He then slowly drew out his sword and Botan started to feel faint.

"Don't move," he said in a low voice, his eyes fixed on something above her head.

Botan ignored his warning, looking upwards to see Hana hanging from the curtain pole behind her.

"Oh no Hiei, it's alright!" she said hurriedly. "This is Hana, she's just Kurama's… Pet plant."

Hiei pulled a face at Botan but she ignored it, depositing the large maggot she had retrieved from demon world onto the breakfast bar at her side. Hana immediately dropped down from the curtain pole, landing by the still-warm insect larva. Botan recoiled in disgust as Hana then opened her jaws so wide her head appeared to break apart, and she took the whole maggot into her mouth in one gulp.

"Oh my…" Botan muttered.

At least her plan had worked, she consoled herself, as she saw Hana lie down on the counter, apparently to try to digest her meal. The smell of her mouth – that sweet, sickly smell of mucilage – filled the air, and Botan had to move away from the plant to stop herself from retching. She instead switched on the lights and set about closing the curtains and unfolding the futon, all the while aware that Hiei was standing by the edge of the room, his attention shifting back and forth between watching her actions and watching the plant monster on the breakfast bar. As she straightened up from opening up the futon something fell from her kimono, the shock of seeing it in the floor at her feet causing her to pause just long enough for Hiei to dart over and snatch it up.

"Give that back!" she cried, reaching for it.

He leapt back, holding the scroll of paper out of her reach. The last thing she wanted then was for Hiei to start laughing at how unlike her he though Rui's drawing was: or worse, she thought darkly, for Hiei to recognise where the drawing had come from and start asking questions she did not want to have to answer, like how had she known where to find the ice village.

"Hiei, please," she tried.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"It's nothing, really," she replied. "It's just a silly little thing I was carrying around with me."

"It's not important?" he asked.

"No, it's really not," she lied.

"Then you won't mind if I burn it."

"No, Hiei, please don't!"

Hiei narrowed his eyes at her and Botan winced, realising that she had literally screamed out her last words, sounding far too desperate to ever manage to convince him otherwise now. She swallowed nervously as he unrolled the paper, seeming to take far too long at the task. Once he had the picture fully exposed in front of him she turned her back to him to save herself the hurt of seeing his reaction.

"I told you it was just a silly little thing," she said, trying to sound flippant about the matter. "It's just… A silly little thing… It doesn't really look like me, I know. My expression in that picture is so…"

"Calm, intelligent and strong."

Botan turned her head slightly, looking back over her shoulder at Hiei. His eyes were glued to the drawing in his hands and his expression, whilst not a mocking one, was not entirely a relaxed one.

"Yes," she said softly. "The artist… Thought that I had a strong character and spirit, and a calmness that meant nothing would ever truly upset me, and a… And that I have an instinctual intelligence."

"Hn."

"Yes, I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it? But I like it, so please give it back."

Botan turned fully towards Hiei expectantly, but still he was holding the drawing in front of his face and his eyes had not moved from it.

"I think it's perfect," he said quietly

"Yes, I know, very funny!" Botan sighed, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. "Neurotic, stupid, weak ferry girl thinks she can be… Wait, what?"

"I like it."

Botan frowned curiously, but as Hiei finally lifted his head from the paper and turned to look her in the eye, there was no denying the sincerity in his words. She smiled, so surprised and especially happy that Hiei could see her the way that Rui had, the way that she wanted to be seen by others. Overcome by a feeling of warmth and belonging she let instinct take over and closed the distance between them with two long strides, touching a hand to his right hand, which was still clutching his sword. She gently pushed his hand down and she felt his fingers open beneath her touch, his sword clattering to the ground.

* * *

"What's going on out here?" Keiko asked.

"Is everything okay?" Shizuru asked.

Kuwabara ignored them both, carefully helping Yukina to her feet. She was shaking all over and seemed like she wanted to cry, but her eyes were dry.

"Yukina?" he said softly. "Don't worry about Botan, she knows what she's doing. And Urameshi and Kurama won't let anything bad happen to her anyway."

Yukina shook her head, leaning into his hold a little.

"I just wanted it to stop," she said weakly.

"Come on inside," Kuwabara suggested.

"Yeah, come on, Yukina!" Keiko agreed. "Let's watch a movie!"

"Hey, where's Botan?" Shizuru asked, looking about herself.

"She went back to demon world," Kuwabara replied.

"She left?" Keiko asked. "Just like that? Without saying goodbye?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Shizuru muttered.

"Hey!" Kuwabara snapped at her. "Ixnay on the Otan-bay!"

She rolled her eyes at him but took his advice and said no more about Botan's departure. Yukina reluctantly came with them back indoors and agreed to accept a drink of hot milk made by Keiko. Kuwabara made sure to sit her in the most comfortable armchair he could find before collecting the envelopes Botan had left behind. He moved back over to sit at Yukina's feet, holding them up towards her.

"This is for you, my love," he said. "They're from Rui."

Yukina gasped, reaching a hand out towards the envelopes.

"Oh, I'm too nervous to read the letter now!" she said as her fingers quivered in the air by the envelopes. "Would you read it to me, Kazuma?"

"Sure!" Kuwabara eagerly agreed, tearing open the smaller of the two envelopes first.

"We'll leave you two alone," Shizuru said, rising to her feet as Keiko passed Yukina a mug of hot milk.

"Right," Keiko agreed.

"You don't have to go!" Yukina called after them.

"Nah, it's alright," Shizuru called back to her. "It's a personal thing for you."

Yukina started to insist that they stay, but the sound of the door shutting cut her off. She turned her attention back to Kuwabara and smiled as he unfolded the letter.

"My dearest Yukina," he read aloud. "It was wonderful to hear from you and to know that you are safe and happy."

* * *

Yusuke glared at Kurama expectantly, but Kurama barely seemed to notice, his attention instead mainly focussed on George, who was in the process of gathering up the sleeping adult Koenma to carry him up to his room.

"Oh, damn it, fox boy!" Yusuke yelled suddenly.

Koenma mumbled out something incoherent and shuffled in George's arms, but did not fully awaken.

"What's going on around here?" Yusuke demanded. "There's something going on with you and Botan and Hiei, and I have to know what it is!"

"Well," Kurama began, turning to face him. "It's not terribly simple on a grander scale, though perhaps it is relatively simplistic when–"

"And don't try to bamboozle me with your fancy words!" Yusuke cut him off. "I know you, Botan and Hiei are up to something, I can feel it my waters!"

Kurama arched his eyebrows at Yusuke's choice of words, but Yusuke was too angry to notice or care.

"What's going on, Kurama?" he demanded.

"Hiei and Botan have gone away together," Kurama replied. "And that is a terrible thing."

"Why is that terrible thing?" Yusuke asked sarcastically. "They've been flirting with each other for months in their own weird ways, with any luck he's taken her somewhere to screw her brains out and save us all the pain of being subjected to them lusting after each other all the time!"

"You don't understand the severity of the situation at all, Yusuke," Kurama sternly replied. "This is a disaster in more ways than one."

"Well I don't see how."

"Then you are incredibly fortunate."

"You're not answering my question!"

"Hiei and Botan left here tonight as two souls we know very well, but after tonight I fear one of them will return changed."

Yusuke rolled his eyes in despair.

"I'm sure Hiei won't hurt her," he said. "He doesn't want to end up back in spirit world prison."

"I'm not in the slightest concerned about what Hiei intends to do to Botan tonight," Kurama quietly replied. "I am far more concerned about what Botan intends to do to Hiei."

"What?!" Yusuke echoed.

* * *

Hiei placed the sketch down on top of Kurama's television, watching the woman carefully as he did so. She was starting to look a little emotional again, and he was keen to avoid her going soft on him. He slipped his other hand out from under hers and moved over to the light-switch, flicking it off. It was quite dark without the artificial light in the room, but Hiei hated the brashness of the artificial lights they had in the human world. He was determined that this time he was going to be able to see her and enjoy it, but it was not going to happen under lights that hurt his eyes and cast such sharp shadows. He was not really happy that the woman had brought him to Kurama's apartment, but one advantage of their location was that Kurama had just the thing Hiei was looking for.

He darted from the room, taking himself to the room he knew Kurama kept his plant experimentations in and casually walking in. As before, the room was mostly filled with that strange, short, fat tree the fox was playing with to try to being himself back into his demon form. A heinous crime against spirit world, Hiei silently wondered if the ferry girl knew what her precious new love interest was actually doing: surely if she ever found out she would not approve, being so straight-laced and moral as she was.

Hiei moved to the nearest corner of the room and grabbed up one of the strange, light-emitting flowers, casually noticing that there was a second plant standing next to the tree in the centre of the room, and it was sprawling about in every direction, threatening to take over the room entirely. Hiei shook his head and carried the luminous flower out of the room, closing the door behind himself. He decided that he would not tell the ferry girl about what Kurama was keeping hidden in there, since it would be dishonourable to break the agreement of silence he had made with Kurama.

As Hiei entered the living room again and the woman caught sight of the flower he was carrying he saw her eyes enlarge, and he began to wonder why he was protecting Kurama's secret: Kurama had never sworn him to secrecy on the matter, and he had not thought twice about taking something from Hiei, maybe it would be sweet revenge to report the whole affair to spirit world.

"Do you know what this is?" Hiei asked, placing the flower down by the television.

She shook her head urgently.

"No," she said.

The room was now illuminated with what Kurama had said was the light of spirit world, and Hiei allowed himself a brief moment to acknowledge that it must be the light of the pure, because as she faced it, Botan looked like an angel.

"You're lying," he said.

Even the angelic glow about her could not disguise the slight pinkness in her cheeks and the tension in her eyes.

"It's just a flower, isn't it?" she asked.

"You know what Kurama's using it for though, don't you?" Hiei pressed.

He could tell by the way she was becoming increasingly nervous that she did know exactly what the purpose of the flower was. That could only mean that Kurama had told her about his experiments, and obviously she had not reported him to Koenma. For Kurama to trust her that much, he was obviously serious about wanting to have her for himself, and for her not to have reported him for his misdemeanour could only mean that she was just as strongly bonded to him as he was to her.

"Um…"

She looked down at her hands, which were fidgeting nervously with her sleeves. Hiei already knew that the do-gooder ferry girl was incapable of lying to him, and her reluctance to confess the truth again highlighted how highly she regarded Kurama.

Hiei wondered if she ever would have gone to such great lengths for him if he had taken her for his own when he had the chance.

"You know about the tree in that room," Hiei said.

She met his eyes then, the look on her face alone providing him with the affirmative response he had been expecting from her.

"I don't care," he continued, smirking confidently. "Tonight isn't about "Shuichi". Tonight is about you and me."

She seemed to relax then and Hiei decided not to waste any more time talking about Kurama or thinking about the apparent relationship between the fox and the ferry girl. He started removing his scarf and coat, enjoying the look of nervous anticipation on the woman's face as he did so. He wanted to make her undress him with her own hands, but he knew that she was too nervous and bashful to make such a bold move, and he was slightly suspicious that it he kept her there too long something would stop him from taking her completely, so he moved quickly, tossing aside his scarf and coat and kicking off his boots. And he was pleased to see that she was actually following his lead as she removed her own sandals and socks.

"This light is lovely!" she said, kneeling down onto the futon.

Hiei walked up to her with the intention of grabbing hold of her and kissing her, but stopped when she looked up at him, something about her face looking strangely different.

"Hiei?" she said softly. "Are you okay?"

She reached one hand up to his face, her fingers as soft and gentle as ever as they slid up his cheek. It was difficult to focus on anything when he felt her skin against his, but Hiei fought against it, studying her face more carefully before eventually realising why she looked different.

"You're wearing make-up," he said.

She smiled.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

"No," he flatly replied.

She pouted and frowned at him as though offended, but the sparkle of cheerfulness was still present in her eyes. Hiei could only think of a limited number of times the woman had ever actually looked sad in her eyes as well as her face, and this was certainly not one of those moments.

"It's unnecessary," he added.

And really it was. She was naturally beautiful, after all, and she had no need to paint her face like that.

"Are you saying I'm pretty enough without it?" she asked, finding her smile again.

At the sight of her smile Hiei felt something twitch in his chest but he ignored it. He was also not about to tell her exactly how attractive he thought she was. If he did, he was sure she would just use it as an excuse to tease him, which seemed to be exactly what she had just done.

"It makes you look whorish," he said instead.

Her smile dropped.

"Oh…" she muttered, lowering her head. "I thought you might like it."

Hiei was surprised at her response – apparently she really had planned this evening, and that was a definite relief. If she really wanted this so badly that she was trying to attract him then it was even more unlikely that she would change her mind or push him off again.

"Will you still kiss me?" she asked, lifting her head to look him in the eye again.

"Hn, I…"

Hiei had a witty retort planned but it faded in his mind as she reached her other hand up to his face and closed her eyes, tilting her chin upwards and bringing her lips closer to his. He was more than a little surprised that she still wanted to be with him so badly after having already received permission from her boss to be with Kurama, and he momentarily wondered if she even knew what she was getting herself into. But when he felt her breath against his lips logic left him and he pushed his mouth against hers, smiling slightly as she moaned at the contact.

Hiei reached his hands around her back and began slowly untying the bow of her obi, the sound of silk dragging against silk filling the air and making him growl in anticipation. Botan's lips parted against his and he gladly slid his tongue into the sweet welcoming warmth of her mouth. Her tongue fluttered against his and she pushed her fingers into his hair, raking fingernails lightly against his scalp. Hiei pulled loose her obi and unwrapped her pink kimono, easing it off her shoulders before grabbing her waist, readying himself to flatten her to the ground: but he stopped as his hands touched silk. He grunted curiously, pulling back from their kiss, ignoring the small moan of complaint she made and leaning back to inspect her with a curious frown.

"What is it?" she asked, watching him worriedly.

At first Hiei was just confused. He had removed her pink kimono, but underneath it she was wearing a white one that was just as long and concealing. Apparently unwrapping her was going to take longer than he had expected, since there was more than one layer to be stripped off. He grinned darkly, finding the thought far more pleasing than it ought to be. He wrapped his arms around her waist and eased her down onto the mattress, lying her on her back and kneeling at her side, taking a moment to just look at her, lying there under that mystic spirit world light: she was perfect.

"Hiei!" she said, giggling slightly. "You've seen me in far less than this!"

"Hn."

Hiei did not expect her to understand his obsession, but it was not even important that she did, just so long as she let him indulge it that night.

* * *

Botan started to feel a little self-conscious when Hiei remained knelt at her side looking down at her. He looked unusual in the mellow glow illuminating the room – the light of spirit world – a light she had never expected to see him in again after his release from prison. She had almost passed out in panic when he had retrieved one of the glowing flowers from Kurama's bedroom, but once she knew that Hiei was also aware of Kurama's experiments – and not of her part in them – she had been able to relax again. And it was quite pleasant to be bathed in the light of spirit world, which was the most soothing light of all three worlds.

When Hiei still did not move after what Botan thought was a reasonable amount of time to wait, she sat up and untied her hair, shaking it loose about her shoulders. From the corner of her eyes she saw Hiei sniffing at the air. She turned to him as he growled, seeing a look flicker over his eyes before he grabbed his arms around her and pushed her down onto her back again, burying his face into her hair by her neck. He started sniffing at her hair but the feeling of his breath coming in short gusts against her neck was ticklish and she wriggled slightly in his hold, suppressing a giggle as best she could.

"Something funny?" Hiei hissed in her ear.

"You're tickling me!" she protested.

"Hn," he responded, lifting his head slightly, the tip of his nose brushing against her ear. "I'm not joking around."

Botan instantly stopped laughing and lay still, momentarily worrying that she had said something to offend Hiei or make him angry with her – but she did not have to wonder for long, as he slid one hand around back of her neck and lifted her head, bringing his face over hers.

"I'm serious, you ought to be too," he said.

She looked up into his eyes, the intensity in his expression too much for her, and she found herself unable to speak, her face reddening slightly as she continued to hold his gaze.

"You asked for this," he reminded her. "I hope you're ready to lose yourself without redemption."

Botan gasped at his words and at his actions as he promptly swooped down, placing a kiss on her throat. His lips were hot and she felt their warmth spreading downwards from the point of contact, a longing for more building pressure in her chest. He lifted her neck slightly and she gladly tilted her head back to allow him fuller access to her throat, which he proceeded to kiss down the length of. His other hand touched her shoulder, his fingers pulling the collar of her kimono down to expose her collarbone, his lips following down as he continued pulling the material down, exposing more of her skin.

Botan began to squirm slightly, the need to feel his hands on her skin turning into a frustration. She started to contemplate reaching her hands down and taking off the remainder of her clothes herself but clarity returned to her mind as Hiei's hand slid a little lower and his fingers gripped around her breast, her breath catching in her throat at the feeling. His fingers felt around her almost curiously and she noticed that his lips had stopped moving, hovering slightly above her skin.

"You're not wearing a bra," he said suddenly.

"What?" she yelped, lifting her head and looking down at him.

Hiei lifted his head to look at her face, his eyes almost accusing.

"You're not wearing a bra," he said again, squeezing her breast to illustrate his point.

"Well I..." she began, conscious that she was blushing. "I just… I don't need to when I'm in my kimono because my obi… It… Gives me support… What do you care anyway? You're trying to get me naked, it's just one less obstacle, right?"

He grinned at her and she felt her face grow hotter still.

"You perform your spirit world duties without a bra?" he asked.

"Well I just… Are you laughing at me?"

Although there was no sound coming from Hiei's mouth, Botan could feel his chest shuddering against her and his grin was as close to an amused one as she had ever seen him wear.

"It's ironic," he replied. "Because you're such a good girl and going out without underwear on is so bad."

Botan pulled a face at him.

"Do you wear underwear?" she asked moodily.

His face flickered slightly, but she was sure that he was still laughing at her.

"I bet you don't even own a pair of underpants, so don't start with me, mister!" she snapped.

"Well you're wrong," he said, his face turning serious.

He took his hand from her chest and reached it down to his hip.

"I do own one pair of underpants," he said, pulling something from his pocket.

Botan glared at her panties dangling from his fingers before turning her attention back to Hiei, who was actually laughing quietly.

"You're not funny," she said, snatching her underwear out of his hand.

She turned her panties over, her eyes widening when she saw the distinct tooth-marks in them.

"You've ruined them!" she protested.

"That's alright," he said, taking them from her and throwing them over the back of the futon. "You certainly won't need them tonight."

Botan yelped indignantly, but Hiei seemed not to care, leaning down to nip his teeth at her neck, his hands sliding down to the fastenings of her white kimono, which he took a surprising amount of care to open without damaging. She had expected him to just rip them off, but he was being uncharacteristically patient with her many layers of clothing. When he finally had the fastenings freed he lifted himself up from her and unwrapped her kimono, his eyes almost popping out of his head as he saw what lay beneath.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at her body.

"It's a yukata," she replied. "Isn't that obvious?"

He lifted his eyes to hers.

"How many layers to you wear, woman?" he asked.

"Just the three," she replied.

He looked confused and not wishing to anger him, Botan sat up and eased herself out of the kimono he had opened, leaving herself in her yukata. When he still seemed to be frozen in a state of confusion she reached for the ties of her yukata, but he suddenly grabbed her wrists and lifted her arms upwards and outwards before pushing her back down to the mattress.

"I was only going to take it off," she defended herself when she found him giving her an almost admonishing look.

"That pleasure has been reserved for me," he growled back. "It will come off when I'm ready to take it off, and not before."

"Okay."

Botan felt a little nervous then, but when Hiei moved his head down to touch his lips to hers again she forgot all about her concerns, closing her eyes and melting into him.

* * *

"I put up all the pictures you drew for me," Kuwabara read. "They made me smile, and with them up, my wall is almost entirely full – but please feel free to draw some more pictures for me, I have three more walls in this room to fill."

Yukina giggled and Kuwabara smiled at her.

"Your drawings are the best, Yukina!" he said.

"My drawings are not nearly as good as Rui's," she replied. "Rui is an incredibly talented artist. But please Kazuma, read on. What else does she say?"

"Okay, let's see…"

Kuwabara turned the page and continued reading Rui's letter to Yukina.

"I have sent you an envelope of drawings, but please finish reading this before you look at them, they will not make much sense to you otherwise."

Kuwabara pointed to the larger envelope at his side and Yukina nodded her understanding that it contained Rui's drawings.

"I was disappointed to hear that you have not found your brother yet. It was hard to discuss him with you when you were in the ice village, we always risked invoking the wrath of the elders for discussing the forbidden child – wait, what?"

Kuwabara lifted his head, looking into Yukina's eyes.

"They called your brother "the forbidden child"?" he asked.

Yukina nodded sadly.

"That's awful, Yukina!" Kuwabara said. "I bet he's a really great guy! I bet he's really kind and patient and gentle, just like you!"

"Read on, Kazuma," Yukina insisted.

"I could never draw a picture of your brother before because of the risk of prying eyes seeing it, and, I confess, because I was a little afraid. In recent years I feel stronger, and after receiving your letter and reading about how strong and vibrant you have become and after meeting with your wonderful friend Botan, I found the courage to follow through. I have enclosed a picture of your brother, which I drew from memory, depicting how he looked the day he was born. I know it may seen odd that I should remember his face for so long, but when you see the picture you will understand why. Your brother was a very distinctive baby, and as long as I live, I will never forget how he looked as I wrapped him up to stop his flames from burning us all."

Kuwabara picked up the large envelope and opened it, finding it filled with several pieces of paper all folded in half, with titles written on each.

"Emiko," he read aloud, picking up one page and passing it to Yukina.

She took it and opened it out, her eyes widening as she looked at what was drawn there.

"Does he look just like you, Yukina?" Kuwabara asked, smiling innocently.

Yukina slowly shook her head before turning the paper around to show him what was drawn there.

"Ugh!" he yelped, recoiling slightly. "What an ugly baby!"

Kuwabara glanced at Yukina, his face dropping.

"Uh, I mean, he doesn't look anything like you, my gorgeous little petal!" he corrected himself.

"He's a fire demon," Yukina quietly replied.

Kuwabara took the picture from her, squinting down at the child depicted. It was an ugly child, he thought to himself, and it was impossible to believe that something so ugly could be in any way related to a perfect beauty like Yukina: but apparently this hideous little cretin was Yukina's twin brother. He had psychotic eyes with a distinct upward slant and a full head of spiked black hair, with a starburst of white at the front.

"He kinda reminds me of someone…" Kuwabara said, rotating the picture slightly as he tried to place who or what the picture was reminding him of.

"Read on, Kazuma," Yukina told him.

Kuwabara put the picture down at his side and lifted up the letter again to continue.

"The picture of your brother as a baby may seem insignificant, I know, but it's not. Yukina, your brother looks almost exactly the same now as he did the day he was born, and I know that because I've met him as an adult."

"What?" Yukina gasped.

"Rui says she's met your brother as an adult," Kuwabara said with a shrug. "And she says: I wanted to tell you sooner, but I had no way of contacting you. He returned here just shortly after you left the village to search for him. He asked to see your mother, and I took him to her grave. He did not know that he had a sister until I told him that day, but I believe it was his intention to seek you out."

"Oh…" Yukina whimpered, clapping a hand over her mouth.

"That's great news, Yukina!" Kuwabara said cheerfully. "Your brother is looking for you too! Maybe Rui will tell us where he went and we can find him at last!"

"Read on, Kazuma!" Yukina insisted.

"Your brother, like you and your mother, is not very tall. He has the distinctive skin of an ice maiden and his eyes are exactly the same colour as yours. He has spiked black hair with a streak of white, and he was dressed in warriors' clothing when I saw him, with a long black overcoat and a white scarf and he carried a katana. I did not immediately realise who he was, despite his appearance, because of two distinctive changes in him. First of all, despite being born a tremendously powerful demon of fire, his power level was so low when he arrived at the village that he was barely stronger than an average human. I don't know why that is, but I think he may have been trying to alter his powers and his abilities, because he wore a white bandana round his head and it concealed a jagan eye: Yukina, your brother was not born with a jagan eye, he could only have acquired it through a transplant, which is something I believe can be done. This should make him very distinctive and hopefully easier to find, but in case it does not, I have included some pictures of how he looks as an adult to aid you in your search."

Kuwabara slowly lowered the letter, looking up at Yukina with an air of suspicion.

"Your brother has a fake jagan eye, he's a fire demon, and he uses a sword," he said slowly. "How could Hiei miss a guy he had that much in common with? I swear, Hiei is not living up to his promise to find your brother, Yukina!"

"Show me the pictures, Kazuma," Yukina said flatly, pointing at the pile of drawings by his side.

"Oh right, yeah."

Kuwabara spread the folded papers out, selecting one titled "brother face portrait".

"Here," he said, handing her the paper.

With shaking hands she unfolded it, hiccupping out a dry sob at what she saw.

* * *

"You're not making any sense at all, fox boy!" Yusuke yelled impatiently. "And you know what: I don't even care any more. In fact, I'm out of here!"

Kurama sighed patiently.

"Where are you going, Yusuke?" he called after his friend.

"I'm going to find a club where the women are the ones getting naked!" Yusuke yelled back.

Kurama shook his head, turning from the door and starting towards the elevators. Although he sensed that he would not get much sleep that night, he was heading for his room regardless. The night was becoming chaotic, and he needed to block it out and focus on his strategy for his fight the next day.

"Kurama!"

Kurama stopped, turning in surprise to see Koenma and George walking towards him.

"I thought you had retired for the night," he said.

"I didn't mean to drift off like that earlier," Koenma replied. "Where is everyone?"

"They all left for an early night," Kurama replied.

"I don't suppose you would want to play another round of poker with us?" Koenma asked, grinning optimistically.

"No," Kurama flatly replied.

"Will you show me how you did that house of cards trick?"

"It's not a trick, it's a skill, and it's one that requires great patience and evenness of temperament."

Koenma's face dropped.

"Are you saying that I lack the attention span to see it through?" he asked.

"Not at all," Kurama calmly replied. "I was just trying to make the point that a house of cards takes great effort to build but it always faces the same fate: it will always eventually fall."

Koenma nodded slowly.

"Maybe I will just go to bed," he said quietly. "I can see that your mind is elsewhere, though I can't blame you. I've seen who you're facing tomorrow."

* * *

Hiei pulled off his shirt and cast it aside, smirking to himself as Botan's eyes roved over his bared chest, that look of apprehensive desire that he enjoyed so much filling her eyes. He eased himself back down onto her, pushing one knee between both of hers. She touched her hands to his shoulders, the feeling of her hands against his skin heightening his need for her. He pressed his lips to hers and she immediately responded, moulding her lips into his: it was a feeling he had yet to tire of, and one he doubted he ever would.

Hiei brought one hand to her face, lightly dragging his knuckles down her cheek, and to his surprise she pulled back from him and reached her hands up to pull his hand from her face. He frowned down at her and grunted out a questioning noise, at which she smiled and began doing something that shocked him so badly it took him a few seconds to recover enough control over his faculties to talk.

"Stop that!" he said sharply.

She grabbed both her hands around his and frowned at him almost stubbornly.

"I just want to see your hand!" she said, before continuing to unwrap the bandages around it.

"Do you know what lies beneath those dressings?" he asked her.

"…Your hand and your arm?" she responded.

"The dragon of the darkness flame, you idiot!" he corrected her.

"But I need to see your hand… And I… I want to feel your hand."

Hiei was then torn between anger at her for so recklessly exposing his strongest weapon at such a moment and arousal at the idea that she needed to feel every inch of his skin bared. She stopped unravelling the bandages at his wrist and did something that made even less sense to him: she turned his hand over and ran her fingers along the lines of his palm before holding her own upturned palm next to his.

"What are you doing?" he grumbled impatiently.

"I was just looking at your love line and your life line," she replied.

"My what?" he echoed.

"This is your life line," she replied, dragging a finger over a crease in his palm.

He twitched slightly at the sensation, which was surprisingly pleasant.

"And this is your love line."

She dragged her finger along another line in his palm, the sensation even more enjoyable than the last.

"It's strange, because everyone has a unique sets of lines on their palm, but your life line and love lines are the same length as mine."

Hiei's face twisted, and as he watched her, she pressed both of her palms to his, knitting her fingers through his to hold his hands against her own.

"Isn't that nice?" she asked, looking up at him innocently. "Every line touching, every detail of our souls together."

Hiei's face twisted again. Despite what the woman had said that night and despite how confident she had seemed, for her, tonight was not just about physical pleasure: clearly from what she had just said to him, she was still entertaining some silly idea that what was happening between them had something to do with love and romance.

"I don't care about that," he said, pushing down on her hands, pinning them down at either side of her head.

"I didn't think that you would," she replied, her smile fading. "But I wanted to tell you about it anyway. It's just something to think about."

"I don't like thinking," Hiei snorted. "I prefer actions to thoughts and words."

She smiled again.

"Then why are you wasting time talking now?" she asked.

Hiei was taken aback at her sudden boldness, but he definitely liked it. And, he thought, if she was going to be bold enough to challenge him like that, he would happily give her what she wanted. He took his hands from hers and began unfastening her yukata, smiling as he saw some of her confidence wane slightly at the prospect of being laid bare before him. He deliberately moved almost painfully slowly as he lifted open the folds of silk, savouring every second of uncovering her skin and exposing her fully. She turned her head to one side and closed her eyes, again reminding him that she was still not as confident as she pretended to be: though he found her demureness to be quite charming.

And as he finally uncovered her completely she heaved a heavy sigh, her chest rising and falling, the soft light spilling over her skin in a way that was almost hypnotising: and with a growl, Hiei dropped onto her. He slipped his arms around Botan's waist and pulled her against his chest, lifting her up from the bed. Once he had her in a sitting position he pushed her flimsy yukata from her shoulders. She pulled her arms out of the sleeves and then reached them up around his neck, pressing her naked body against him, and, despite not being overly fond of hugging in general, Hiei allowed her to hold him like that for several seconds, simply enjoying the feeling of her skin on his. Deep down, he knew that this was his last chance to ever be with her, and he was determined to make the most of it, to get the need for her completely out of his system, because after this one night, he could never touch her again.

Botan started to pull back out of their embrace but Hiei held onto her tightly. She moaned in confusion, but he stubbornly held onto her. It was of course wrong on many, many levels that an S-class demon should be holding a naked ferry girl in his arms, but for something that was so wrong it felt completely right to Hiei. In fact, he thought with a small pang of confusion, it felt more right than anything else in his life ever had.

"Hiei?" she said softly.

He tensed slightly as he felt her lips on his shoulder and her hands gliding up his back.

"You feel tense," she said, running her fingers over the taut muscles in his back.

"Hn," Hiei grunted back.

She started kissing along his shoulder towards his neck, her hair brushing against his skin as she turned her head, the lightness of touch making him growl and tighten his hold on her. She moaned again and tried to pull back, but he held her firmly in place, his body locked into position by some unknown force.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her words almost muffled out of coherency against his shoulder.

"I don't want to let you go," he said quietly.

Hiei felt Botan jerk in his arms, presumably in surprise at his choice of words – not that he could blame her, as he was more than a little taken aback by them himself. He was not even sure what he meant, even though the words had come from his mouth. It was probably just that need to have her, he decided. As soon as he had had sex with her, the feeling would vanish, he told himself. It was just because he never got to get anywhere near her before, because she was always just beyond his touch, because he had let himself think about it for so long, because he needed to take her so badly and this was the closest he had ever gotten to satisfying that need. Hugging her naked body would mean nothing and hold no appeal to him once he had fornicated with her.

"You'll have to let go eventually, silly!" she said, giggling slightly.

Hiei growled at her words, a frustration rising within him from nowhere. His first thought at hearing her words was that she was wrong. Or that he wanted her to be wrong. He did not want to let go, and maybe he never had to.

Maybe he could just keep her for himself.

Hiei steeled himself and pulled his arms from her, moving his hands to her shoulders to push her back down onto the bed. He positioned himself on top of her, entangling his own legs with hers and pushing outwards to rest himself between her legs. She cried out softly as he settled against her, and even though he was still clothed from the waist down, he could feel the heat of her through the single layer of material separating them and it was almost too much. He swallowed hard and fought with every ounce of strength he had against his primal urges, reigning in his instinct to flare up and completely take her over.

"I-I'm not like those other girls, Hiei."

Hiei grunted a questioning sound into Botan's hair, unsure what her words actually meant.

"I'm not like all those other girls you've been with," she said, her voice quieter. "I can't… I mean I've never… I've never done this before, I just hope I don't disappoint you."

Hiei chuckled in a mixture of amusement and relief at her explanation.

"Silly girl, you don't think I already know how inexperienced you are?" he growled into her ear.

"I just didn't want you to think that I might be like the other girls you've… Been with," she replied. "I'm not like them, and I don't think I ever could be."

"I know you're not like the other girls," he said. "You're nothing like them, but none of them have ever satisfied me. I've never wanted any of them the way I want you."

"But maybe you'll be disappointed when you actually… When we actually… Because I don't know how to do… I don't know how to do all of those things those other girls can do."

"Woman, let go of your inhibitions and give in to me. If I didn't like anything about you, we wouldn't be here right now."

"But I don't have–"

"Stop it. I wouldn't change anything about you, I love you just the way you are."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (Continuing with part 2 of the 5-chapter saga) Things get seriously hot and heavy between Hiei and Botan, Kuwabara has a most unusual reaction to seeing the pictures of Yukina's brother, Kurama announces something shocking, there is a murder and, just as Kurama and Yukina warned it would, the whole night ends in tears… **Chapter 34 – The Truth**

 **A/N:** Advance warnings for the next chapter, where the sexual content becomes considerably more graphic and… Intense!


	34. The Truth

**Warnings for this chapter:  
** Explicit sexual content  
Strong language  
Major drama  
Mild peril  
Massive cliff-hanger

 **Recap:** Botan and Hiei went to Kurama's apartment where Botan found out that Hiei already knew about Kurama's experiments with the FOPL tree and they proceeded to get intimate with each other, Kurama stated that he was concerned more for Hiei than Botan that night and Yukina found out – through her letter from Rui – that Hiei is her long lost twin brother.

* * *

 **Chapter 34: The Truth**

"Stop it. I wouldn't change anything about you, I love you just the way you are."

Botan froze, her entire body going stiff. Hiei started to kiss her neck but she could barely feel it. She was sure that, somewhere in amongst his last words, he had said the phrase "I love you" and now he was acting like he had meant to say it. Did he even realise that he had said it? Was it just a mistake? Surely it had just been a slip of the tongue, she told herself: after all, Hiei did not believe in love, why would he suddenly feel differently now?

She opened her mouth to speak to him but had to stop herself as she found that the only words her mouth wanted to say were "I love you too". She was torn between letting herself say it and holding it in. Maybe if she did say it he would realise his mistake and surely that would only be disastrous. If she said something to anger him he would surely run off again, and she might never get closure on her attraction to him, and she was almost entirely convinced that giving in to him that night would break the tension between them and hopefully put all thoughts of him from her mind. She had long ago given up hope of him loving her, but hearing him say the words made her start to doubt herself. She struggled to push the thought from her mind, trying to remind herself why she had sought him out that night: it was just a physical thing, and once the night was over, there was a good chance she would only ever see him at the demon world tournaments every three years, and even then he would probably not even acknowledge her. This night was the closest she would ever get to Hiei, and she had to take this one chance to enjoy him that way.

"Say my name," he muttered as he kissed his way down her chest.

Botan started to say his name, her voice breaking in a cry of surprise and pleasure as he cupped one of her breasts in his hand, circling his thumb around her nipple. He grunted out a noise of enjoyment, apparently liking hearing her cry out his name like that. She moaned and arched her back, gripping her hands into the futon as Hiei traced the contours of her nipple with his tongue before gently sucking it between his lips. His other hand move to her other breast and he continued his attentions, and as enjoyable as they were, Botan felt herself twitching and groaning with a need for him to move his hands lower.

"Hiei…" she panted out, her fingers digging at the futon.

"Botan," he muttered into her chest.

She smiled at the sound of his voice saying her name again, silently wondering if he had any idea of just how much she enjoyed hearing it.

"Hiei," she said again, lifting one hand to stroke his hair.

"Botan," he growled back.

Botan clawed her fingers into his hair and lifted her other hand, grabbing at his shoulder. His skin was so hot and his body so firm to the touch. His bare chest was resting against her abdomen whilst his fingers and lips caressed her breasts, and she began to muse at the differences in their bodies and how perfectly they fitted together. His chest was hard and firm and hers was soft and yielding. The thought brought to mind other ways the firmness of his body would fit into the softness of hers and she let out a prolonged moan of longing.

"Hiei!" she moaned.

"Botan."

His voice was becoming progressively rougher and deeper, his hands were gripping into her more forcefully and his mouth was sucking at her almost desperately. The feelings were so intense she was starting to worry that she might pass out; her body was buzzing all over and her head felt light and unstable.

"Hiei," she said again.

"Botan!"

Botan gulped as she felt Hiei's energy rising. His skin was getting hotter against her, and she started to sweat, the feeling of his skin on hers becoming almost too much to bear. His touches were becoming more fervent and he was pressing more of his weight against her, flattening her against the mattress. It was a little bit worrying, but when one of his hands slid lower, passing over her hip and round her thigh, his fingers reaching closer to the juncture between her legs she forgot all about his change in behaviour

"Hiei…" she gasped, her breathing becoming uneven as she anticipated his fingers touching her at the source of her longing.

"Botan!" he snarled, his voice barely sounding like his own.

His fingers touched her and for a brief second Botan felt the joy of fingers sliding along her before her attention was drawn elsewhere: in the blink of an eye Hiei's energy spiked, sparks of raw demon energy shooting out of him in every direction, mostly stabbing into the futon bar one, which pierced painfully into Botan's shoulder.

"Hiei!" she screamed out, clapping a hand onto the point of pain.

Hiei hesitated, his face buried between her breasts, one hand still resting between her legs and the other gripping into the futon mattress at her side. He did not move but Botan did feel his energy lowering and she dared to move her fingers against her shoulder, gasping involuntarily as one finger dipped into a sticky gouge in her skin. She slowly lifted her hand in front of her face, shocked to see that her fingers were both quivering uncontrollably and smeared with blood. She watched the blood run down her fingers for several seconds until she noticed that Hiei had lifted his head. She moved her eyes to his, giving him a fearful and questioning look.

"…I knew this would happen…" he said quietly, his voice still a little rougher than usual.

Botan was unsure what he meant, and she did not know if she ought to be afraid or upset.

"You should have known too," he added.

Botan then felt afraid.

* * *

"Yukina?" Kuwabara said softly. "Are you okay?"

Yukina slowly lowered her hand from her mouth, her bottom lip quivering.

"I-I always…" she said weakly. "I always wondered… But I never thought that… Let me see the rest of the pictures. Please!"

"Sure," he replied, passing her the other two pictures.

Yukina placed the first picture down onto her lap and unfolded the second and third, laying one on each arm of the armchair. The first picture was just of her brother's head and shoulders and the other two were full-body portraits, one of him from the front and the other from the side. It had been very kind of Rui to draw all three pictures, but frankly it had been unnecessary. Yukina had known from the moment she had seen the baby picture, and just one picture of her brother as an adult had been enough to confirm the facts: Hiei was her brother.

"Oh my goodness!" she gushed, looking between each of the pictures. "I can't believe it! All this time… I always wondered because of… But why did he never say anything to me?"

Kuwabara frowned up at her in concern from his position on the floor.

"Can I have a look?" he asked.

Yukina nodded and Kuwabara raised himself up onto his knees, peering at the pictures she had balanced around her. His eyes grew wide as he looked at each one in turn and Yukina started to realise what he must be feeling: she knew that Kuwabara had never really liked Hiei and learning that the fire demon was her twin brother must be a shock for him. He reached over and spun each of the pictures around to view them the right way up, his face scrunching up as he did so.

"I don't believe this…" he growled in a low voice.

"Neither do I!" Yukina replied. "I don't understand why Mister Hiei never said anything before now!"

"Hiei didn't say anything before now because he's a selfish bastard," Kuwabara said.

Yukina's eyes widened and she lifted them to Kuwabara, but he was still glaring at the picture on her lap.

"This is so typical of Hiei!" he continued. "You know I don't care that he messes me about and that he has no respect for me or anyone else on the team, but it takes a really low, nasty, worthless bastard to mess with the feelings of a sweet, innocent, kind, trusting and gentle girl like you, Yukina."

"…Kazuma?"

Yukina was confused: she had expected Kuwabara to be scared, worried or confused, but she had certainly not expected him to become angry.

"This makes my blood boil," he growled, rising to his feet.

Yukina tilted her head curiously as she watched Kuwabara retrieve his communicator from his pocket and flip it open.

"Damn it, I'm trying to enjoy a drink and a show!" she heard Yusuke's voice say. "The last thing I want is to spoil it by looking at your ugly face! I've got a big fight tomorrow and I'm busy in here, what the hell do you want?"

"Send Puu," Kuwabara flatly replied.

"Do what?" Yusuke echoed.

"Send Puu," Kuwabara repeated. "Now, Urameshi."

"Hey, Puu is not a damn taxi for every bastard who's too lazy to walk places by himself! First Koenma, and now you! Put your hand in your pocket and buy a bus ticket, you lazy son of a bitch!"

"Urameshi, this is not a joke. I need to get to demon world and now. Send Puu."

"You can't come to demon world!"

"Urameshi, I'm not joking around! Send Puu!"

"…Fine, I'll send Puu, but you better give me a damn good reason for making me leave this club and for using my spirit beast like your own personal taxi service!"

"I have to get to demon world."

"Want to tell me why?"

"I have to do something important."

"…Okay… Can I ask what?"

"I have to kill a dirty, lying dog."

"…Okay. I'm on my way outside, I'll send Puu, but I'm telling him to bring you back to me, you can't run around demon world on your own, you'll probably just get yourself killed."

Kuwabara snapped shut his communicator and grabbed up the drawing of Hiei's head from Yukina's lap before turning on his heels and walking briskly from the room.

"Kazuma!" Yukina wailed, jumping off the chair and hurrying after him. "Kazuma! Don't go to demon world, please! It's dangerous!"

"I have to Yukina," he called back over his shoulder. "I'm not gonna let Hiei get away with this."

"Kazuma!" she screamed.

"Hey, whoa, what's going on here?" Shizuru asked, stepping into the hallway.

"Kazuma's going to demon world, you have to stop him!" Yukina begged her.

"He's doing what?" Keiko asked, moving over to join them.

"Hey, little bro!" Shizuru yelled, running after her brother. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing this!" he yelled, holding up the picture towards Shizuru.

As she drew level with him she squinted at the image in his hand, her eyes widening involuntarily at what she saw.

"Rui drew that for Yukina?" she asked.

"Damn right she did," Kuwabara growled back.

"And now what?" Shizuru asked, hurrying along with him as he left the temple. "You're going to demon world to do what, exactly?"

"I'm going to kill Hiei for lying to Yukina and messing her around all this time!"

Shizuru stopped short, watching her brother march on without her. She had always known that one day he would learn about the relation between Yukina and Hiei, and she had often wondered exactly what sort of reaction he would have: but of all the possibilities she had envisaged, Kuwabara losing his temper and chasing down Hiei with murderous intent had never been one of them. Behind her she heard Keiko calling out to her, asking what was going on, and Yukina begging Kuwabara to come back and ahead of her she saw a distant shadow in the sky and her brother hurrying on towards it.

And for an instant she felt a shadow pass over her mind, like a premonition of an imminent great sadness: she just hoped that it would not affect her brother or poor Yukina.

* * *

Yusuke narrowed his eyes as he ran them over the figure standing between Kurama and George.

"Are you even allowed in here?" he asked. "Shouldn't there be a law against it? I know this is demon world, but I've seen bouncers throw Hiei out of this place because they suspected he was under-aged: what's your excuse?"

Koenma's eyebrows twisted into an almost condescending look and he sighed patiently.

"I came here to try to restore some sanity to this evening," he said. "It seems like everyone is on edge, and it's getting late, you all ought to be resting up for tomorrow."

Yusuke snorted in false amusement.

"You came in here to ogle naked women, Junior!" he said.

Koenma glanced at the three women dancing on the stage, his lips flickering slightly as a hint of a grin played on his features.

"I was just following you, Yusuke," he said, meeting Yusuke's eyes with an almost serious look. "The fact that there happens to be women stripping on the stage there is merely a coincidence."

"I thought you went to bed already, isn't it way past your curfew?" Yusuke sneered.

"I can't get any sleep now. Not after seeing you send Puu to the living world. Care to tell us what that was all about?"

"Buy me a drink and I'll think about it."

"Okay…"

Yusuke grinned, giving Kurama and George a thumbs-up as Koenma pulled out his wallet and approached the bar.

"I'll just take a fruit juice," Kurama called over to Koenma. "I'd like to be in full control of my faculties through the night."

He eyed Yusuke over sceptically, but Yusuke failed to register the irony of his words.

"I'll have a beer, Sir!" George called out eagerly.

"You'll have nothing, and be grateful for it!" Koenma snapped back at him.

George pouted and began bemoaning his career prospects and life choices to anyone who cared to listen: which turned out to be nobody nearby as Yusuke and Kurama collected their drinks and began talking to Koenma again.

"No idea," Yusuke said as he collecting his glass.

"What?" Koenma echoed. "I bought you a drink for "no idea"?"

"Who called you?" Kurama asked.

"Kuwabara," Yusuke replied. "He said he needed Puu because he has to come to demon world for something."

Koenma groaned.

"And you sent Puu to bring him here?" he asked.

Yusuke shrugged.

"I figured he just wanted tickets to the tournament," he said.

Koenma started to argue that Kuwabara had shown no interest in leaving Yukina's side to come to the previous two rounds or the preliminaries, but as he saw Kurama pick up his glass his voice faded.

"Oh…" he said quietly. "I guess even Kuwabara couldn't resist coming to see what's happening tomorrow."

"Is that a dig at me?" Yusuke snapped. "Is it because you all think it's funny that I have to fight a woman?"

"You shouldn't underestimate Kokou, Yusuke," Kurama advised him.

"I'm not!"

Yusuke started grumbling to himself, George continued to ramble on to a barmaid about his unfortunate life, Kurama took on a far away look and Koenma sighed.

"It's going to be a long night…" he muttered to himself.

* * *

Hiei sat back on his heels, holding his hands up in front of his face: they looked no different from an ordinary human's hands, and yet he knew that they were something far worse. Those bitches from the ice village had been right. Of course they had, he thought wryly, they always had, and he had seen evidence of it time and time again. This was just another piece of proof that what they had said about him the day he was born was true. He was a beast, and his hands would only ever destroy. He could vaguely recall the oldest of the witches saying something about how the ice maidens were creators of a gentle nature and he was a destroyer of a cruel nature – he could not remember their exact words, but he did not need to. As much as he despised those women, he could not deny that they had been right about him: right to cast him out, right to never try to find him again and right to say that he would only ever destroy anything he touched.

"Hiei, are you okay? You… You're scaring me…"

Hiei lifted his eyes to Botan, who was watching him with wide eyes, her face looking even more afraid than her voice had made her sound. Her right arm was hugged across her chest and her left hand was still pressed over the wound he had created on her shoulder, her fingers outlined in red where her blood was seeping through.

"You should be scared," he told her flatly. "And don't bother looking surprised, this is what I am, you've always known that. You've seen my crimes and felt the pain of my aura first-hand before, this shouldn't be something new to you."

"I don't understand!" she gasped.

Hiei faltered slightly, something tightening in his chest. Apparently that look on her face was not fear after all, apparently it was a blend of confusion and hurt. That could only mean that she was hurting emotionally as well as physically. Something else he had managed to destroy, he thought bitterly.

"You didn't do it deliberately."

Hiei could not stop his face from contorting in his confusion.

"Wh-what?" he stammered out.

"You didn't do it deliberately," she said again, as though it was the most natural and obvious thing for her to say at such a moment. "I know that you didn't. Like you just said, I've always known who and what you are, and I know that you would never do this to me deliberately."

Hiei started to get angry. She was actually starting to sound like she pitied him, and that was infuriating and could not be tolerated.

"It's alright, it just gave me a scare because I wasn't expecting it," she continued. "And the look on your face really worried me. I thought something was seriously wrong."

"Something is seriously wrong, you idiot!" he snapped back. "Look!"

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand from her shoulder, exposing the wound underneath.

"It's okay," she said, her eyes never leaving his. "I can heal it."

She gave him a small smile and wriggled her wrist out of his grasp, pressing her hand to her shoulder again, a soft golden glow illuminating beneath her palm. Hiei watched her quietly until she took her hand away again to show her skin once more perfect, the only trace of the damage he had caused being the drying blood on her hand.

"See?" she said to him.

"Are you completely out of your mind?" he growled at her. "It doesn't matter that you can heal it, the point is that it hurts when it happens! I hurt you!"

"Yes you did," she replied quietly. "But I forgive you."

"Well you shouldn't!"

"Why not?"

"I don't forgive myself for it!"

"Well maybe you should! And besides, if I'm the victim, I get to decide whether or not you should be forgiven, and I say that you should!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

Hiei grabbed his hands into his hair, closing his eyes and releasing a low growl of frustration. He was completely confused, torn between wanting to run away again and wanting to just lie down and continue what he had been doing before his own demonic nature had betrayed him. He had never imagined that being with Botan would be this complicated: but as he considered that thought, he realised that he had never actually considered the finer details of being with a ferry girl. All he had thought about had been three minutes of rough sex with a virgin who would probably bleed a lot and cry the whole way through it.

"I'm a shit…" he muttered aloud.

"No you're not!" Botan said dismissively. "You just think that you are because you've been so busy playing the tough guy act that you've forgotten how to just relax and have fun."

Hiei snatched his hands from his hair and scowled at the point on the futon where Botan's head had been, starting in confusion when he saw that she was sitting up. He tried to back out of her reach but in his confusion and delayed reaction she managed to get her arms around his waist before he could manoeuvre himself away from her. He looked down at the top of her head, wondering what sort of mind she had in there that she could actually justify what he had just done to her. She was a ferry girl and he was a demon after all, she was supposed to be repulsed by him and terrified of him. What was wrong with her?

"Please don't stop," she muttered into his shoulder.

He tried to grunt out a "hn" but the sound that came out was more an uneven squeak than the sound of bored indifference he had been aiming for.

"Please," she said, kissing him softly. "Please don't stop, I'll protect myself with my own spirit energy, it'll be alright. I just want this one night with you, isn't that what you want too?"

"No."

Hiei was as surprised by his answer as Botan looked as she sat back to look him in the eye.

"But I thought you wanted…" she said weakly.

"I do," he quickly recovered. "So… Just remember to… Put up a barrier or something, or else I'll tear you in half the next time."

"Okay."

Hiei pulled a face at her but she smiled back at him, leaning back and pulling him down with her. He was still unsure that he did want to continue, because a part of him was worried exactly how badly he could hurt her if he lost control again – and following through with what she was asking for would make him lose control at least once more – but as he lay down on top of her again and she began softly kissing his neck he once more found it impossible to fight his need for her.

"Just remember that you asked for this," he muttered.

He lifted his head and brought his lips to hers in a passionate kiss that immediately reminded him that staying where he was right then was absolutely the right thing to do. He stroked a hand over her head and reached the other hand out for one of hers, only then realising that he had, for perhaps the first time ever, laid down with her without securing her hands where he could see them. He did not have to wonder for long about where her hands had gotten to, but he was shocked when he felt what she was trying to do.

Hiei grunted, pulling out of their kiss and frowning down at Botan questioningly. She smiled up at him but did not stop her actions, looking almost pleased with herself for having caught him so off-guard. He waited while her fingers finished unfastening his top belt, finding the feeling of her knuckles brushing against his abdomen quite enjoyable, but as she moved her fingers down to the second belt he reached down and grabbed her hands, lifting them up above her head.

"No," he said firmly, touching the tip of his nose to hers.

"But it's not fair," she said, sounding like a spoilt child. "I'm naked, you ought to be too!"

"I've never had the satisfaction of viewing your body in all its glory before tonight," he flatly replied. "You've already seen me in that way, and from what I understand, you took your time enjoying it."

Botan gasped and started to blush, the sight bringing a smirk to Hiei's lips.

"You talk tough sometimes Botan, but underneath it all you're so timid," he purred.

"You're being a big meanie again," she moaned, pouting at him.

"Hn. I just like watching you squirm."

"I know you do. It's very mean! I can't help what I am!"

"I love what you are."

* * *

Botan felt the colour drain from her face almost as quickly as it had risen. She had almost gotten over hearing Hiei use the word love earlier, almost managed to convince herself that it was just an oversight on his part, but when he used the word a second time doubt flooded through her. Love was a word he claimed to not even know the meaning of, and yet he had used it twice in a matter of minutes and in direct relation to her. And, she thought, he had even said love differently that night: usually he pronounced it as though he was retching up a demon world maggot, but that night he had said it softly and almost melodically.

"Oh, Hiei!" she gasped as he began kissing his way down her body, his hands sliding down her arms, every inch of his bared skin gliding over hers.

Botan started to forget about what he had said again. Her mind instead wandered off the topic and onto something else that had been bothering her ever since the day she had freed Hiei from the vine of the guilty and he had kissed her on the forest floor: if love making felt this good, felt this right, this heavenly and divine, why was it something no ferry girl was ever able to do? In fact, Botan thought, probably even spirit world ogres got frisky with each other when they felt that way inclined, whilst ferry girls were made to dress in heavy, traditional clothing, to wear their hair plain and to spend their lives around human souls that knew of the wonder the ferry girls never would. Even demons got to experience this delight; it was undeniably cruel that ferry girls had to be virtuous and pure.

"Hiei?" she whispered, looking down at him.

Botan bit her lip to contain a groan as she watched him drag his tongue around her navel.

"Hiei, I need to ask you something very important," she added.

She wondered why her voice sounded so strained and why she was so breathless. Hiei continued to ignore her, his hands reaching her waist, where she felt his fingers grip into her a little tighter. He started to kiss lower and Botan again forgot what she had been thinking about, her attention solely focussed on watching his lips moving lower and lower. Her hips twitched upwards slightly but he tightened his grip on her waist, holding her down. She made a noise that she supposed was an attempt at saying his name but came out as more of a mumbled whimper. At the sound he lifted his head, his eyes meeting hers. She tried to smile though she knew that it was a feeble attempt. His lips smoothly tilted into a lop-sided smirk of overconfidence and he slid himself lower, his face hovering inches in front of the junction between her legs. Her face twisted in confusion and his smirk widened before he slowly and purposefully dragged his tongue over his top lip, his eyebrows twisting suggestively at her.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, her voice fainter and more breathy than ever.

"Hn," he grunted in response, his hands moving from her waist.

She watched him wind his arms around the tops of her legs, his biceps hardening against the underside of her thighs as he pulled her legs further apart, exposing her fully to him. She still felt confused even as he moved his head forwards, only registering his intent when she felt the flat of his tongue pressing against her and dragging slowly upwards, her entire body shuddering and a ragged cry leaving her throat as he passed over a particularly sensitive area. She was left breathless and shivering as he lifted his head again, his eyes meeting hers once more and another confident smirk firmly in place on his face: which was simply too much for Botan, who turned her head to one side and closed her eyes.

"Look at me," he immediately said, his voice quiet but firm. "I mean it woman, look at me."

Botan dared to open one eye, turning her head back slightly to bring his face into her line of sight.

"Look at me Botan," he said, his voice slightly softer. "I want you to remember that I was the one who made you feel this way."

She slowly opened her other eye and turned her head fully towards him, chewing nervously at her lip in anticipation as he started to dip his head again.

* * *

Kuwabara marched briskly along the poorly lit street, his spirit sword in one hand and his communicator in the other. It was convenient that the communicator could also now be used to track other communicators, because his was now leading him to Yusuke. Puu had taken him to a hotel, but he had not found anyone he knew inside, and when he had switched his communicator on it had indicated that Yusuke was about half a mile away from the hotel. He was furious, and he had been gladly pushing down anyone who got in his way, blinded by his purpose of being in demon world: nobody mocked Yukina like that, he was going to find Hiei, and kill the bastard.

As he walked, Kuwabara thought about Yukina's priceless hirui stone that she had given to Hiei. Not only was it of incredible financial value, but it was of immeasurable emotional value to Yukina, a lasting heirloom and gift from her long deceased mother. Hiei had probably sold it for another fake eye implant or a lifetime supply of Cuban heels, or something equally as trivial, and was meanwhile drip-feeding Yukina lies like telling her to give up looking for her brother because he was probably dead. Kuwabara could stand Hiei treating him like dirt – frankly Hiei had always treated him like dirt and he had long ago accepted that that would never change – but he drew the line at Hiei messing Yukina around and lying to her.

"Get out of my way!" Kuwabara yelled as his communicator directed him to a building entrance blocked by two large demons.

"There's an entrance fee for this club for all non-members," one of the demons warned him. "Either you pay up or show us proof of membership."

Kuwabara narrowed his eyes impatiently.

"How much does membership cost?" he asked sarcastically.

"One hiruiseki gets you three months unlimited access," the demon replied.

And those were his last words as Kuwabara mercilessly cut him down and shoved the other demon aside, stepping over them to storm into the club. Like he needed to be reminded about demons exploiting ice maidens for their tears. He almost lost some of his ire as he saw three women doing unthinkable things on the stage, but as he sighted Yusuke with Kurama, Koenma and the blue ogre he found his focus again, pushing his way through the crowds towards them.

"Oh, hey, Kuwabara!" Yusuke called over to him. "Did you come here to see the third round fights up close?"

Kuwabara ignored him, stopping amongst the four men and looking around them.

"Where the hell is Hiei?" he roared.

"What?" Yusuke echoed.

"Where the hell is Hiei?" Kuwabara yelled into his face.

"Whoa, calm down!" Yusuke replied, holding up his hands. "What do you want with Hiei?"

"Where the hell is he?"

"Kuwabara, please, Hiei is not with us tonight," Kurama said calmly, touching a hand to Kuwabara's arm.

Kuwabara rounded on him and leered in his face but Kurama did not so much as blink.

"Perhaps we can be of assistance," he offered. "What is that you seek?"

"An explanation for this!" Kuwabara snarled, stuffing his communicator into his inside pocket and retrieving the folded page he had stored there. "Yukina just got this from her friend in the ice village!"

He unfolded the sketch and held it up in front of Kurama's eyes.

"Yes I see," Kurama replied, without even looking at the page.

"Aren't you gonna look at it?" Kuwabara asked him.

"I don't think that I need to," he replied. "Clearly Yukina's friend has met her brother and now she is doing what she can to help her find him. I don't see what the problem is."

"You don't see what the problem is?"

"Let me see that, Kuwabara!" Yusuke said.

Kuwabara spun around to show Yusuke the picture, his anger only rising when he saw the look of shock followed almost immediately by a look of guilt on Yusuke's face.

"You already knew about this, didn't you, Urameshi?" Kuwabara growled.

"Um, maybe, yeah…" Yusuke replied, scratching at the back of his head awkwardly.

"And obviously Kurama knew too," Kuwabara continued. "And what about you, Koenma? Did you know about this?"

Koenma hung his head.

"Yes Kuwabara, I did," he replied. "But it wasn't my place to tell you."

"I bet even that ogre knew about this!" Kuwabara added, pointing a finger at George.

"Yes, I did!" George agreed, cheerfully oblivious to the glare his response earned him from Koenma .

"Damn it, you guys!" Kuwabara yelled. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner? And how could you let this happen to poor Yukina? All this time, Hiei's been mocking her, and since you all knew about it too, you've all been mocking her too! Yukina is a good and kind person, and you bastards ought to be ashamed of yourselves for watching her suffer in pain worrying about her brother when all this time, you could have done something to stop her agony!"

The others all avoided looking Kuwabara in the eye except for Kurama, who had a distinctly cold and distant look on his face.

"What's your problem?" Kuwabara asked him. "You don't think I should be angry with Hiei?"

"Be as angry as you want to be," Kurama smoothly replied.

"I'm gonna kill him!" Kuwabara replied, starting to leave again.

Kurama suddenly grabbed a hand around his elbow, holding on with a surprisingly strong grasp that stopped Kuwabara abruptly.

"No you will not," he said quietly.

* * *

Hiei licked relentlessly at Botan, the taste of her, the smell of her and the sound of her moans and cries of pleasure – which were becoming increasingly frantic and incoherent with every passing second – only fuelling his need for her and the urgency of his actions. His own body was betraying him, his energy smouldering around him in clouds of darkness, but, as though acting on some instinct, Botan was responding to it by emitting a healing and protecting energy of her own, that both stopped his aura from harming her and sent the same soothing sensations over his body that the power of an enchantress would, only adding to the myriad of pleasurable sensations surrounding him. When he heard Botan make a particularly ragged noise and felt her hips bucking against his hold he pushed his lips against her, sucking her tender flesh into his mouth, almost laughing when her whole body jerked in response and she began whimpering uncontrollably. Hiei held her firmly in place and continued his attentions until she found her release and her body went limp, only then slowly drawing back, pulling his lips and then his tongue from her warmth. He slowly ran his eyes up the length of her body until her reached her face, stopping there and allowing himself a small smile as he saw her eyes were closed again and her mouth was hanging open as she tried to catch her breath. She was coated in sweat, her hair sticking to the skin along her forehead and around her throat, her chest was heaving and her legs were still quivering slightly against his arms. It was, without a doubt, the most breathtakingly beautiful sight he had ever laid eyes on.

Hiei slowly lessened his hold on Botan's legs, glad to see that she did not trying to bring them together again once he had relinquished his hold. He sensed that, ordinarily, she would have been scrambling to cover herself from his view at that moment, but she had temporarily lost herself entirely to the climax of her own desires, and she simply lay there sprawled out before him in all her glory, her breathing slowly regulating as she began to come down from the body rush. Hiei waited patiently for her to open her eyes again, deliberately saving his next actions for a moment when she would be able to watch him perform them. She had been innocent and ignorant to what he had just done to her before that night, but he was determined to make her remember forever more how it had felt and how badly she wanted it again – for he knew that, in time, she would want it again. And then he would be the one in control. Once was enough to satisfy his needs, but it would never be enough for her, he would see to it that nobody else ever made her feel the way he had – and the way he would continue to do – that night.

Slowly and hesitantly her eyes fluttered open, peering at him in a blend of apprehension and embarrassment, with just the slightest glint of desire. He waited until she had opened her eyes further and turned her head more fully to look directly at him before he made a point of slowly licking the wetness from his lips. She gasped and at first he thought she was going to look away again: but surprisingly she kept her head forward and her eyes open, watching him with an almost hungry fascination: perhaps there was hope for the sickeningly sweet and naïve ferry girl after all.

Hiei dragged the back of his hand across his lips, pausing midway through his action as the girl beneath him shocked him again by growling at him, her lips flickering and a look passing over her eyes that for a moment made him tense in expectation of her pouncing at him. He found himself a little disappointed when she did not move, though it was probably better for her that she had not leapt at him, as he was sure that if she had he would have rolled her over and taken her over completely, and he doubted she could have handled that. But even though she did not make a move, the look in her eyes was unmistakable, and Hiei was beyond needing any more encouragement: he dropped his hands to his second belt and began unfastening it, watching Botan carefully as he did so. Her eyes widened slightly in a blend of fear and desire as they watched his hands work the length of leather free of the buckle. As he finished opening the belt he moved his hands to the waistband of his now loose pants, ready to push them down but stopping as she suddenly met his eyes with a look of urgency that caught his attention.

"I don't want this to end," she said suddenly, looking up at him worriedly.

"Hn, silly girl," he snorted. "I haven't even started with you yet."

"That's not what I mean!" she said urgently.

Hiei started to frown, his grip loosening. He had a sickening feeling that she was about to say something that would ruin the entire night – which would really piss him off right then, since she had at least enjoyed a little relief and he had yet to get any himself.

"I mean I don't want tonight to be the only time that we ever… Do this…" she said, watching him carefully as though choosing her words based on his reactions.

"Just…" he began, his face twisting and that strange tight feeling building in his chest again. "Just stop talking. I can't concentrate when you're talking at me, woman."

"But I've been thinking a lot about this–"

"Random acts of wanton carnal unions are not something you "think a lot about"!"

"–and I think that we could do this more than once."

"I don't see how."

"Well, I… I just like being close to you, Hiei, and I think you like being like this with me, so why don't we agree to do it more than once? I don't expect anything from you, just that… When I want… And when you want… We can do this again."

Hiei's face twisted as he was completely unable to keep his horrified disbelief from manifesting itself across his features.

"Are you offering to be my…" he started, unable to even use the correct word in reference to the sweet and innocent ferry girl lying before him.

"…That's what you want, isn't it?"

"It's not what you want!"

She frowned and even Hiei himself wondered why he had said what he had.

"…Not that I care what you want," he added, avoiding her eyes as he spoke.

"Then tell me this won't be last time that we ever do this," she responded.

Hiei shook his head, turning his head to one side to remove her from his field of vision entirely.

"I'm not interested in that," he muttered. "I just want…"

Hiei's voice faded in his throat and he found himself wondering what the honest end to his sentence was: what actually did he want? He licked his lips nervously, the action bringing in the taste of the ferry girl again and lust clouded his judgement: he just wanted to make her cry out his name again. He turned to face her again, managing a smirk and feeling almost confident to continue onwards, the only nagging thing holding him back being that irksome tension in his chest.

"Come to me," she said softly, reaching her arms up towards him.

Well, she was asking for it, he thought. He lowered himself back down onto her, smiling slightly as she pushed her head up to meet his lips in another soft and inviting kiss that made his entire body throb with want. He hurriedly pushed his pants down to his knees before grabbing one of her legs in each of his hands, pushing them apart and bringing his hips forwards, touching himself against her. They both groaned as he pressed his length against her wet warmth, and Hiei ended their kiss, lifting his face slightly to watch hers as he began positioning himself at her entrance, readying himself to plunge in and take her with all he had.

"Hiei…" she said softly, her eyes looking deeply into his. "I love you."

"Fuck!" he yelled, dipping his head and breathing heavily. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Hiei growled, his voice breaking slightly in a shuddering moan as he slid his hips back, breaking the contact between them with a dragging motion that felt far more pleasurable than he needed it to right then.

"This isn't about love!" he snapped, lifting his head to glare down at Botan. "I thought you understood that when you came seeking me out tonight!"

"I-it isn't about love for you," she said slowly. "I-I understand that, but this is about love for me, Hiei, and it's important to me that you know that."

"You're being stupid!" he snarled.

"Maybe," she said with a slightly shrug. "But I do love you Hiei, and I thought you might like to know that, because you think that nobody cares about you, but I do… More than you could ever know… And I'll always be here for you. I'm happy just to have times like tonight together with you. I just like being near you."

"You're being unreasonable! How can you possibly… Don't you understand that I can't love you back?"

She nodded, looking saddened and yet not at all disappointed or hurt as he had expected she would be upon hearing his last words.

"I already know that you don't love me Hiei," she said, her voice slightly lower. "I've accepted that."

"I didn't say I don't, I said I can't."

Botan's eyes widened in surprise, and although Hiei had not actually intended to admit to what he just had, he decided to finish since he had started.

"I can't," he said again. "I… I don't know how…"

* * *

Botan sighed, her mind going numb. She wanted to rejoice that Hiei had not denied having feelings for her, but at the same time, the conflicted look on his face and the increasing tension in his muscles was making her unsure what to think.

"But it's love," she muttered. "It's not something you know, it's just something you do."

"It's not something that I do," he growled, avoiding her eyes. "I never have."

"But that doesn't mean that you never can," she pointed out.

"You…"

"Hiei, I know that you have a warmth hidden within your heart. You don't know how to draw it out because you've always been made to suppress it, but you don't have to be that way anymore."

"You don't know what you're talking about, you fool…"

"But I do, I've seen it! I've seen the way you look at Yukina, I've seen the way you always help your friends when they need you, your loyalty to Mukuro, I know you're an honourable and noble soul and I know that you also have a kind side, you've just never been allowed to set it free."

"This is… Stupid…"

"Do you think it was easy for me to come here tonight? I was terrified. I was terrified that night you took me to the beach, I didn't know what you expected of me – I still don't – but I trusted you to guide me and teach me how to express that side of myself because I knew that you knew what you were doing, and I love you and I trust you. Why can't you do the same? Trust me to show you how to love."

"Oh fuck!"

Hiei lowered himself down, lying on top of Botan a little too heavily for her liking. She looked down at him curiously as he rested his forehead against the futon mattress at her left shoulder, his hands clawing into the mattress at her sides until his fingertips burst through the material with a series of small popping sounds.

"Hiei?" she whispered, gently touching a hand to the back of his head. "Hiei, are you okay?"

She gently stroked his hair, winding her other arm around his back, smiling to herself as she held him close. It was quite uncomfortable having his weight pressed against her so heavily, but it was far more enjoyable being able to just hold him in her arms, feeling the length of his naked body against hers. She felt him shudder slightly, his body tightening further. He shuddered again twice more, each time his body becoming harder and heavier against her, but still she held on, stroking her hand through his hair and waiting patiently for him to do or say something else.

"Fuck this," he eventually said.

Botan yelped as his weight suddenly lifted from her. He was on his feet so quickly she did not even see how he had done it, his outline coming into focus again by the television as he fastened his belts around his waist again.

"What are you doing?" Botan asked him, lifting her head to watch him with a frown.

"I don't need this shit," he ground out, stepping into his boots and stumbling across the room to gather up his shirt and sword.

"Hiei?"

Botan pushed herself up onto her elbows, watching him roughly pull on his shirt and tie his sword to his belt.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

He muttered out something indecipherable before turning and crossing back over towards the television where he had deposited his coat and scarf. He stumbled over something en route, stopping to glare down at something out of Botan's line of sight.

"What the fuck is this thing anyway?" he roared, squatting down and rising up again quickly, one fist clamped around Hana's head.

"That's Kurama's piranha plant," Botan replied. "He's using it to gets seeds for his fight tomorrow."

"Hn."

Botan screamed as Hiei tossed Hana into the air and whipped out his sword, slicing through the plant with one easy swipe. He caught one half of the plant's head in one hand, pulling it apart to reveal a cache of seeds. She watched in horrified silence as he burned the seeds and remains of the plant between his hands, grinning maniacally as he watched them dissolve into ashes.

"Hiei!" Botan gasped.

He ignored her, slipping on his coat and angrily winding his scarf around his neck. He then crossed to the window and threw it open wide.

"What are you doing, Hiei?" she yelled desperately.

He ignored her, leaping out of the window.

"Hiei!" she screamed, leaping up and running to the window.

Botan grabbed the windowsill, leaning her head out to look down at the street below, turning her head in time to see Hiei leaping from tree to tree, round the street corner and out of sight. She dropped back to the ground, remembering then that she was still completely naked, and she did not need any of Kurama's nosy neighbours to see her at his window in such a state of undress.

"What…?" she muttered, crawling back over to the futon.

She was frustrated, confused and frustrated. She decided that she was justified to be frustrated twice: she was frustrated at Hiei's typical running off at a crucial moment and she was frustrated that he had not finished what he had started with her. Her desire to be with him had only been multiplied by his earlier attentions, and she almost wanted to cry at the knowledge that she would not get what her body now craved greatly.

As she crawled across the futon mattress one of Botan's hands pushed down onto something hard and she stopped short, looking down at the back of her hand. She suddenly felt very cold, and yet a sweat burst out over her. She knew already what was concealed beneath her palm, and she wondered how long it would take Hiei to realise that he had left it behind. She slowly clawed her fingers around, gathering up the stone into the palm of her hand before sitting back onto her heels and turning her hand over to open her fingers out again. Unsurprisingly, a hiruiseki was resting in the centre of her palm, glistening in the spirit world light around her. Obviously it had become detached from one of the chains around Hiei's neck during their earlier actions, and she wondered which stone it was: Hiei's or Yukina's. She supposed that it did not matter, since they were identical. She knew that they were identical because she had worn both for a little while back at the start of their mission to find The Stolen Moment.

It was strange that the stone in her hand was a different colour, though. Botan was sure that the two stones she had taken from Hiei were blue and sparkly like pale sapphires, but the stone in front of her now was smoky grey and gleaming, like a grey pearl.

Botan closed her fist around the stone and lowered her hand to her knee, shaking her head to herself. Hiei was so complex and troubled, she wished he could just let go and not be so afraid to feel something.

Then she noticed something winking at her from the mattress. She reached a hand over and gathered up what lay there, holding her hand up in front of her face. She was holding two hiruiseki, both that pearly grey colour. Apparently both the stones had detached from their chains. That was quite surprising, since Hiei had fought with both stones around his neck and they had never detached from their chains before. There was not even a mark on them to indicate where they had once been attached to a chain.

Botan frowned. She slowly lifted up her other hand and opened out, seeing a single hirui stone. She glanced back and forth between her two hands: two hiruiseki on her left hand, and one on her right. She brought her hands together, the stones clinking together by the join between her palms. Two hiruiseki plus one hiruiseki was three hiruiseki.

"These aren't Hiei's mother's tears," Botan muttered to herself. "These are Hiei's tears… But why?"

* * *

"Not even you can stop me, Kurama!" Kuwabara said firmly.

"You will not go near Hiei until after his fight tomorrow," Kurama firmly replied. "It's important that he is focussed and ready for the opponent he faces tomorrow."

"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara snorted. "Why? Who's the little bastard fighting tomorrow?"

Kurama gave a small smile before giving an answer that made Kuwabara and Yusuke yelp in shock.

"Tomorrow Hiei fights Youko Kurama."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** (Part 3 of the 5 part saga) Yusuke fights Kokou and when she learns who Kurama's opponent is, Botan is distraught and racked with guilt, and Koenma is starting to think he is missing something. **Chapter 35: The Challenge**

 **A/N:** I would like to say that, whilst this chapter may have seemed quite explicit, I believe it was necessary because of the nature of the relationship between Hiei and Botan (up to this point in the story)… That's my excuse, anyway…


	35. The Challenge

**Recap:** Botan and Hiei shared some passionate moments that ended abruptly when Botan told Hiei that she is in love with him, at which he admitted to having feelings for her, but that he could not really express them. Botan offered to show him how but he got more than a little upset and ran off – but not before killing Hana. Meanwhile Kuwabara went to demon world in a fit of rage after seeing Rui's pictures of Yukina's brother, intent on finding and falling out with Hiei. Kurama stopped him and told the others he is fighting Hiei in the next round of the demon world tournament. (Extended recap for the benefit of anyone who skipped the last chapter – wouldn't blame you if you did, it was kinda smutty.)

* * *

 **Chapter 35: The Challenge**

"So if you insist on killing Hiei, I'm afraid you will have to wait. Fate has decided that I will be the one to face him in mortal combat, and if he is still standing after I fight him tomorrow, you can settle your own grudges with him then."

Kuwabara gulped audibly, his spirit sword fading in his hand.

"You never said you were fighting Hiei tomorrow, Kurama!" Yusuke pointed out. "Why didn't you say something sooner? You must have known you'd be facing him!"

"I've known since we drew lots for the preliminaries," Kurama smoothly replied, releasing his hold of Kuwabara's arm. "Hiei drew number 44 and I drew number 45. Simple forward planning of the tournament structure showed that, provided we both made it through the preliminary battle royal and rounds one and two, we would face each other in round three. I'm surprised you had noticed it for yourself, Yusuke."

"If Hiei was 44 and you were 45, shouldn't you guys have fought in round one?" Kuwabara asked.

Kurama shook his head.

"But you knew that you would be fighting Hiei by round three?" Yusuke pressed.

"Anyone who bothered to actually look at the listings for each division could have seen it coming," Koenma muttered.

"And you knew too?" Yusuke echoed, rounding on him. "Why did nobody tell me?"

"I assumed you had checked the listings for tomorrow at the end of the last round," Kurama replied.

"Yusuke's never been a forward-thinking man who appreciates the finer details of anything," Koenma pointed out.

"Shut-up!" Yusuke sneered.

"Wow," Kuwabara said quietly. "Now I do want tickets to the tournament. I've seen you guys fight other people and I've even seen Hiei fight Yusuke, I bet you two fighting will be awesome."

"Hiei has asked that it be a fight to the death, and as his friend I should honour that request," Kurama replied, his voice slightly lower.

Yusuke, Kuwabara and Koenma all winced at Kurama's words. George turned blue with fear, but nobody noticed the difference.

"…You're seriously gonna kill him?" Kuwabara asked quietly. "I was just gonna cut the point off his hair and rough him up a bit."

"Pfft!" Yusuke snorted. "You were never going near Hiei, Kuwabara!"

"I was!" Kuwabara argued back.

"How, exactly?" Koenma asked. "Wait until he was asleep, sneak up behind him and take a lucky shot before hoping that you could somehow out-run him?"

Kuwabara muttered out a few complaints but the others ignored him.

"I've always wanted to see you two fight," Yusuke said to Kurama. "But just remember: nobody has to die."

"I agree," Koenma said. "Though I do have a question for you, Kurama."

Kurama turned to Koenma, his face no less darkened and intense as his eyes met the prince's.

"You said that Hiei will be fighting Youko Kurama tomorrow," Koenma said, his eyes narrowing slightly as he spoke. "Does that mean you have found a reliable way to revert back to your full demon form?"

Kurama did not flinch but he did pause substantially before he answered the question.

"Yes," he eventually said. "A little something I've been working on for some time now."

* * *

"Oh dear," Botan said as she poked a finger at the remains of Hana.

Hiei had obliterated the top half of the plant, and the bottom half that remained had spilled a stickiness over the floor and started to wilt already. Botan did not like touching what she felt was the corpse of Kurama's beloved pet, but she was worried about the seeds Kurama had been intending to harvest from the plant. There had been an abundance of seeds in the top part of the plant but they had been incinerated by Hiei, and she could not see any more amongst the remains in front of her. She did not know how late Kurama intended to harvest the seeds, but if had not done so yet, he would never be able to now. His crucial third round match was the very next morning, and he had explicitly stated that it was for that fight that he needed Hana's seeds.

She hoped Kurama had what he needed already, or else that he had a very effective back-up plan, as it looked like Hiei had successfully destroyed any seeds that had been left.

Botan rose to her feet again, smoothing back her hair and looking about herself. She had put her yukata back on, but the remainder of her clothing was still strewn about the room, the futon was still unfurled at her feet and the glowing flower from the bedroom was still standing nearby. It would only take minutes to hide any visual traces of her presence there, but a few long sniffs at the air around her told Botan that hiding the evidence altogether was going to prove a much harder task, especially when trying to hide smells that were obvious to her own human nose from Kurama's ultra sensitive fox demon nose.

Botan sat down again on the futon, hugging her arms around her knees and opening out the hand she had been holding in a fist for some time. There were still three hiruiseki sitting on her palm, and even though she had spent a considerable amount of time studying them already, she was still surprised to see them. It still amazed her that Hiei had actually shed tears and that he had inherited the ability to create precious stones from his ice maiden mother. He had obviously never cried before, she decided, since if he had, surely the bandits who had raised him would have just forced him to cry to make their fortune, and later Hiei himself would never have needed to follow the life of a common criminal as he would have had access to an infinite wealth. A part of her was not surprised that he had never cried, since he had clearly demonstrated that night, just as he had so many other times in the past, that he was very good at repressing his true feelings and only ever allowing his anger to surface, but another part of her simply pitied him for never having the freedom to express himself before. She wondered if he had even felt what had happened: did he know that he had left the stones behind?

Botan closed her fist over the hirui stones again and looked about the room again. It was a very pleasant atmosphere, between the light from the flower and the lingering smell of Hiei on her skin, clothes and the futon beneath her. She knew that she ought to go back to demon world, back to her hotel room and prepare for the next day: but as she spotted an alarm clock she decided that she would just stay where she was. If Kurama came back before the morning she would be able to explain to him about Hana, and if he did not then she would enjoy a good night's sleep there on her own: and she really did need a restful night of sleep, since the following day meant round three of the tournament and a return journey to the living world to check on Yukina, who was due to give birth within the next few days.

And with those thoughts weighing on her mind, Botan grabbed at the alarm clock, setting it for early the next morning before gathering the remainder of her clothing into a pillow and settling down on the futon. As she rested her head on her clothes she inhaled deeply, breathing in the scents of tree bark, cinders and sweet tree sap – the scent of Hiei – mixed in with the usual scent of her own clothes, the two blended together perfectly. She smiled slightly and closed her eyes, soon drifting off to sleep.

* * *

"Welcome back to round three of the demon world tournament, people!" Koto yelled, her voice echoing around the stands as it was broadcast from multiple speakers. "There are only 32 contestants remaining, and after today, that number will be halved! 32 fights means 8 bodies in each division, and we're just minutes away from the start of the action! All four divisions will be fighting simultaneously, so keep your eye on the screen for updates. I've been told that D division are ready to go and the fighters of A division are desperate to draw blood! C division are a little behind and there's been a technical hitch with B division due to a camera breaking down, but hopefully we'll have that sorted and be ready to go when the counter on the screen reaches zero!"

Kuwabara drummed his fingers nervously against his knees, glancing at the empty spaces on the bench either side of him. He had not seen any of the others since Koenma had given him a key to a hotel room the night before, and he was starting to wonder if he was missing something. By luck, he had found Puu outside of the hotel after breakfast, and apparently the spirit beast had been waiting for him, as it greeted him and gladly let him climb onto its back. Puu had then taken off without waiting for Koenma or his faithful ogre assistant, taking Kuwabara to the arena. He assumed that Kurama and Yusuke had been long gone by the time he awoke, but he was growing doubtful of even that as he continued to sit alone, waiting for someone to join him.

He wondered where Botan was: when she had left Genkai's temple the day before she had said that she was on her way back to the hotel in demon world, but he had not seen her there at all. It seemed strangely selfish of her to leave after Yukina had begged her not to and also for her to have lied about where she was actually going. She maybe had to go to spirit world for something, he thought. Or – more likely – she got distracted by something pink and fluffy and forgot herself completely; she was a bit of an airhead, after all.

But it was odd that even Koenma and the ogre were missing. They were not exactly an inconspicuous duo, even by demon world standards, and it was strange that neither of them were at their seats yet. According to the clock on the big screen ahead of him, the tournament matches would all be starting in less than two minutes, and surely Koenma and Botan would not want to miss seeing Kurama clash with Hiei.

"And it looks like that camera is still down over in B division!" Koto announced. "The other three divisions will begin as scheduled, but B division will be delayed until we can get that camera back into action. Bear with us folks, it won't be long, and in the mean time we'll still have all the gruesome and bloody action of divisions A, C and D!"

Kuwabara double-checked his programme. Yusuke was in A division, which meant his fight would be starting imminently, but Hiei and Kurama were in B division, meaning he would have to wait a little longer to see them fight. He silently hoped that Kurama did transform into his scary fox demon self and beat the crap out of Hiei: that would teach the little bastard a lesson about messing a girl around.

* * *

As Kokou stepped up to the edge of the ring Yusuke gave her a critical once over, pleased to see that she appeared sober and focussed. He wanted a decent fight, and he had seen her put up a more than decent fight plenty of times against plenty of others in the past, and the thought of facing her half-baked had been a disappointing one. Thankfully however, she had cleaned up and looked about ready to slaughter something, so hopefully she would prove to be the challenge he sought. He had specifically asked that he be allowed to fight first because he had heard that the B division fights had been delayed, and he was hoping to beat Kokou with enough time to spare to get back to the arena to watch Hiei and Kurama fight with the others.

"A division first set," a voice announced. "Fighters, take your position in the ring."

Yusuke gladly bounded into the ring, turning to watch as Kokou made her way over to meet him by the middle. As the call came for them to start Yusuke started to tell her that he was looking forward to a good fight, but his words were cut off as her foot collided with the underside of his jaw, the blow sending him reeling. He cursed as he staggered to regain his balance, barely finding his footing before losing it again as she kicked him over the side of the head, sending him flying across the ring.

Yusuke groaned as he pushed himself up, his eyes quickly widening as he saw Kokou charging towards him with unexpected speed: apparently Kurama had been right, it was wrong to underestimate her.

* * *

"Kuwabara."

Kuwabara turned his head, relieved to see Koenma and his ogre moving along the bench towards him.

"Did we miss anything?" Koenma asked as he sat down at Kuwabara's side.

"Not really," Kuwabara replied with shrug. "Just Urameshi getting kicked about the ring like a rag doll by a girl."

Koenma tilted his head slightly as he looked at the screen ahead of them, watching curiously as Yusuke swung a punch at his opponent, who managed to block the attack with her forearm before catching him in the ribs with a forceful roundhouse kick.

"I don't know how he does it," Kuwabara said. "I could never hit a girl."

"You could if she was beating you up and your life depended on it," Koenma flatly replied.

"No way!" Kuwabara argued. "And speaking of girls, where's Botan?"

"I don't know. I thought she went to Genkai's to see Yukina."

"She did. At least, she was there last night, but she left to come back here. I didn't even see her at the hotel."

"She definitely didn't come back to the hotel. She wasn't in her room last night or this morning."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you slept in her room last night."

"What?!"

Koenma quirked an eyebrow at Kuwabara, who, in his sheer horror, was screwing up his face in a most unattractive manner.

"You wanted to stay here in demon world last night, and I thought that Botan was staying with Yukina, so I gave you her room key," he said casually. "Well, I gave you the spare key, I think Botan still has her own key with her."

"Botan had a key to the room I slept in last night?" Kuwabara echoed.

"But she didn't come back to demon world last night," Koenma said, his attention wandering from the horrified redhead at his side.

"She might have come in during the night and seen me sleeping!"

"Ogre, did you see Botan yesterday? I thought she was in the living world."

"Oh my God, I slept naked last night! It was too hot in that room, I wasn't thinking! What if Botan did come in during the night and she saw me like that?"

"Ogre, did you hear me?"

"Oh my God, I took a dump in the toilet before I went to bed, too! It wouldn't all flush away the first time around and I forgot to flush again until I got up this morning! The whole room was stinking!"

Koenma sighed, hanging his head.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," he grumbled.

* * *

Botan's ponytail whipped at the sides of her face as she sped through the skies breathlessly, silently cursing Kurama for owning an alarm clock that was inexplicably an hour behind the real time. The alarm had awoken her, but only when she had opened the curtains and seen how high the sun was in the sky had she realised that the clock had been at the wrong time. Switching on the television had shown her that Kurama's alarm clock was exactly one hour slow, and she had gone into a panic – one not helped when she had slipped on the remains of Hana and fallen over the glowing flower, breaking it in half and killing the light it emitted.

So basically, she thought to herself with a dry smile, she had killed Kurama's plant he needed for his big fight and she had probably upset the balance of light required to sustain the trees he had been growing and therefore also killing off his supply of Fruits of Previous Life. She hoped he could manage to fight without transforming and without the seeds he had been raising Hana for, or else that he already had enough fruit juice and seeds to do what he needed to.

She wondered who he was fighting that day: obviously it was someone quite powerful that he felt the need to transform into his full demon form and to use a special demon plant.

Botan realised then that she had no idea who was fighting who that day. She had been so caught up in other matters since the last round of the tournament she had not even thought to consult one of the listings notices that had been posted all around demon world, including in the hotel she had been staying in. She had checked it before the previous two rounds, if only to brace herself for something shocking like Yusuke fighting Yomi again. She doubted anything that exciting would be happening that day – surely someone would have said something to her if it was – but she did now wonder if perhaps Kurama's opponent was someone he had a history with, someone like Yomi.

And of course, Botan wondered what lay in store for Hiei that day. His behaviour the night before had been so strange, especially towards the end of the night, she hoped that he would not be distracted. She would feel guilty if he performed poorly that day, she would blame herself for calling him out like she had the night before and forcing his hand to make him show his true feelings. But, she thought with a smile, at least Hiei had finally shown her that he had feelings for her.

Nearing the portal to demon world at last, Botan realised that she had two big concerns facing her when she got there – or at least, she thought she only had two concerns, as she was assuming that Koenma had not noticed her disappearance the night before – and one was related to Kurama, the other related to Hiei. She worried that the Fruit of Previous Life that she had helped Kurama create might help him become the new king of demon world, as it would, in a way, be her doing, and that was a lot to bear on her conscience. She also worried that Hiei might not be sensible enough to focus on his fight that day after his night of passion with her – she was sure that there was usually some sort of rule in martial arts tournaments in the living world that fighters were not supposed to pursue such energetic ventures the night before a big fight, but maybe since they had not actually gone all the way he would be alright.

But hopefully, Botan told herself, neither would come to pass. Hopefully Hiei would pull of another impressive victory and Kurama would fight without the need to resort to using a past life regression or the seeds he had harvested from Hana. With those thoughts Botan found her smile again, which barely flickered as she entered demon world and the thick, stagnant air polluted her lungs once more.

* * *

Kurama sat patiently on the bench by the ring, his back straight, his arms folded over his chest and his legs crossed. All around him fighters from B division, medics, judges and technicians were running about frantically cursing at each other. They were wasting energy and effort, whilst Kurama was remaining calm, taking the opportunity to watch the television that had been set up outside the nearby locker rooms, which was currently showing Yusuke being beaten about by Kokou. As Kurama had suspected, Yusuke had underestimated Kokou – or perhaps he had some reservations about attacking a woman, since he had yet to lay a blow on his opponent. He doubted that Yusuke was using his own favoured strategy – waiting to gauge his opponent's strengths and strategies before launching a counter-attack – but despite Yusuke's floundering, he still believed that his friend could be victorious that day.

In fact, Kurama hoped that Yusuke was victorious that day. He hoped that Yusuke won every match in A division, because then he would face the champion of B division, which Kurama was quietly optimistic would be himself, and he relished the challenge of facing Yusuke in battle, something he had never had the opportunity to do before then despite secretly always wanting to test his skills against the mazoku.

And although most of Kurama's attention was on the television and Yusuke's match, he was consciously aware that, despite Mukuro and a few of her men being amongst the confusion of bodies around him, Hiei was nowhere nearby. Kurama had not seen Hiei since the night before when the fire demon had gone off with Botan. He was sure that by now Hiei had realised his mistake. Kurama had of course warned his friend before about the dangers of repressing his true feelings and of chasing after a girl as gentle as Botan, but Hiei had chosen to ignore them, and by now he was probably feeling quite humbled. Perhaps it was for the best that way. Kurama just hoped that Hiei would be able to focus on their fight that day. He expected to defeat his friend, but he hoped for a challenging battle before he got that far. The only slight hitch in his plans for his fight against Hiei that day had been the delay B division was suffering. Kurama could not drink his special blend of Fruit of Previous Life juices until he was ready to go into battle, otherwise he risked the effects wearing off before he even faced Hiei; and he knew that, in his current form, he was unable to defeat Hiei.

On the television screen Yusuke was up, one fist glowing, and finally he was launching an offensive attack against Kokou, who had already done a good job of bruising Yusuke's arms and face, where he had blocked and taken direct hits. Kokou was proving to be as agile as she was strong, leaping out of harm's way and dodging every blow Yusuke aimed at her, but she had tired herself considerably in her initial assault, and she was only narrowly avoiding taking a hit. It was only a matter of time before Yusuke connected with a blow, and once he had, Kurama knew that the fight would shortly be over.

Kurama casually passed his fingers through his hair at the back of his neck, removing a particularly large seed he had stored there. Unfortunately Hana had only produced one seed for a male plant, but as long as nothing happened to that one seed, Kurama's victory that day was assured. He rolled the seed over between his fingers thoughtfully before concealing it in his hair once more: Hiei had just appeared by the locker room entrance.

* * *

"Oh darn!" Botan muttered, swirling around in the sky in confusion.

She had forgotten how to get to the arena. It was ridiculous. She had managed to get to the hotel and even out to the okunen trees where the battle royals had taken place, but she could not remember the way to the arena, even when trying to take a route from the hotel or the okunen trees, both of which she had flown before. In the distance she could see the site of one of the division matches, obvious from the sky because of the flying eyeballs filming the action. She knew that it was dangerous to approach such a site, especially if she happened to do so during a match between two S class demons, but she was running out of options and she was worried that she might miss the action altogether, and so she hardened her resolve and took off towards the eyeballs.

Flying fast and frantically, Botan was soon able to see that a fight was ongoing, and as she got closer still, she realised that she must be approaching the A division ring as the match taking place was between Yusuke and a vaguely familiar looking woman. Conscious that a misaimed spirit gun could vaporise her, Botan wisely took herself down to the ground behind a nearby rock formation, dematerialising her oar and continuing on foot, keeping herself low and moving quickly, aiming to hide behind the remaining contestants from A division to watch Yusuke fight.

By the time Botan had reached the group of demons watching the fight she could feel Yusuke's energy flaring up exponentially, the air around them appearing liquidated in the glow of his aura. She sensed that the battle would soon be over and began to smile – Yusuke had lost in the third round of the last demon world tournament, if he won today he would advance to the fourth round, taking him further than before. Perhaps today would be a good day after all, and as soon as the tournament action was over, Botan intended to find Hiei to talk to him about what had happened the night before.

She quietly concealed herself behind the other demons waiting for their turn to fight, peering past them to watch as Yusuke fired his spirit gun, blasting his opponent out of the ring completely. Botan suspected that, despite the awesome power behind the blast, Yusuke had been holding back slightly. Presumably because he was not firing to kill, she thought. Whatever his reasons were, his opponent did not rise again and he was declared the winner. He staggered from the ring a little clumsily, almost falling over completely when a lanky demon with big hands congratulated him on his victory and slapped him on the shoulder a little too hard.

"Yusuke!" Botan cried, rushing over to catch him in her arms before he fell over.

"Botan?" he grunted, grabbing her arms and pushing himself back from her. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the others watching at the arena?"

"I was going there," Botan began. "But silly me, I forgot–"

"I bet Kuwabara sent you here, didn't he?" Yusuke interrupted her.

"…Kuwabara?" Botan echoed. "When did he get here?"

"Last night, he slept in your room."

Botan released Yusuke abruptly, but luckily he had righted himself enough to no longer need her support. Kuwabara had stayed in demon world the night before? And in her hotel room? But why? And how had he even got there?

"He sent you to heal me, didn't he?" Yusuke continued. "Good, yeah, hurry up and get on with it. Then fly me to the arena, I want to see the big fight too."

Botan pulled a face at Yusuke, feeling increasingly confused, but he merely pointed at the bruises and swellings on his face.

"Heal me, quickly!" he demanded. "I don't have time to go to the medical tent and I want to be able to sit up and watch the fight, so get on with it already!"

"You don't look so great Yusuke," she said, eying him over sceptically. "You're favouring your left side there, you might have broken ribs, I think you should–"

"Shut-up and heal me, Botan!"

Yusuke grabbed Botan's hands and pressed them against either side of his head.

"Do it!" he yelled at her.

"Well now, that's no way to talk to a lady, Yusuke!" Botan snapped indignantly.

"Good thing I'm not talking to a lady then, eh Botan?" he sneered sarcastically. "Get on with it! We could be missing the fight right now!"

"You have no respect for me at all…" she grumbled.

Despite feeling more than a little miffed at Yusuke's disrespectful words, Botan obliged his demands and began using her powers to heal his wounds. She had no hope of healing him entirely – he was actually quite badly beaten up, seemingly from multiple harsh blows – but she did her best to ease his wounds all over to make him comfortable and more able to move around. Once she was done she retracted her hands and gave him a nod to confirm that she was through, at which he began shaking himself off, a frown appearing on his face as he did so.

"Well that was a half-assed attempt," he grumbled. "I'd have been better off with a couple of junior aspirin and a glass of milk, what's wrong with you, Botan?"

"I can't expend all of my spirit energy healing you!" she snapped back. "I need to conserve at least a little so that I can fly us back to the arena!"

Botan summoned her oar to illustrate her point, wiggling it in the air between herself and Yusuke.

"You're so rude!" she moaned, hopping onto her oar. "Sometimes you treat me worse than Lord Koenma treats poor George!"

"Oh yeah?" Yusuke replied, a hint of a grin appearing on his face. "Maybe I should start spanking you too, huh?"

Botan narrowed her eyes at Yusuke threateningly, but his grin widened.

"I'll go without you," she warned him.

He grabbed the blade of her oar in one hand and then watched her expectantly.

"Is that it?" she asked him.

"I'm ready to go," he replied. "Now get us out of here!"

Botan slowly shook her head, lifting into the air until Yusuke's feet had left the ground before pausing and looking down at him.

"Are you sure you want to ride in that position?" she asked him. "Surely you'd be more comfortable riding on top."

"I always ride in this position," he replied, his grin wider than ever. "I prefer it to being on top, actually."

"Okay…"

Botan turned from him and sped off, silently wondering what he was so amused by. She did think it was interesting though that all four of the spirit detectives had rode on her oar with her, and all four had taken different positions: Yusuke was choosing to cling onto the blade by one hand as he had done when they had first met, Kuwabara liked to sit with the handle between his legs, Kurama had sat side-saddle alongside her and Hiei had stood on the blade. Botan started to wonder if how a man accepted a lift on her oar was any sort of indication about his personality but her thoughts were shortly interrupted by Yusuke yelling at her that she was going the wrong way.

"I can't remember how to get to the arena!" she called down to him.

"So then why didn't you ask me before you took off in the wrong direction?" he yelled back at her.

"Why didn't you tell me this was the wrong direction?" she shot back.

"Just turn right and speed up!" Yusuke shouted.

Botan sighed and rolled her eyes before following his order. She arced to the right until she heard him telling her she was pointing the right way and then shot off again. As they passed over an area of forest Botan contemplated dipping down a little and letting Yusuke batter off the treetops to teach him a lesson for being so rude to her: but she decided that doing so would defeat the point of her having healed him, and it was a little too cruel, so she stayed up high, another battleground appearing off to her right – though something appeared to be amiss, as the flying eyeballs were grounded.

"Hey, that's B division!" Yusuke called up to her.

"Hiei and Kurama are in B division," Botan responded, more thinking aloud than talking to Yusuke.

"Yeah, and did you know that they're fighting each other today?"

Botan slowly turned her head to look fully downwards at Yusuke for any sign that he was joking or that she had misheard his last words.

"You didn't know?" he asked her. "I only found out last night, but Koenma already knew, I thought you did too. Kurama said he knew he would end up fighting Hiei in the third round, something about the lots they drew and the opponents they had in rounds one and two. There's a camera down over there so they've delayed the fight, which is great, because now I can watch it!"

Botan was so overcome with emotions she almost went completely catatonic. She turned right again, ignoring Yusuke's protests, and angled her oar downwards, dropping towards the confused mess of bodies rushing around the site of B division. Without even checking to see how Yusuke would manage to get down to the ground, she banished her oar and dropped the last few feet, landing a little awkwardly before breaking into a run.

"Botan, you crazy bitch!" Yusuke hollered after her.

Botan kept running, almost entirely blinded and deafened in her determination to reach just one person.

"Botan?"

Botan ran past Mukuro, ignoring her too. Behind her she could heard Yusuke calling for her to come back, but his voice was getting further away from her, so she assumed that he was not even trying to follow her. She zigzagged around a cluster of armoured demons before reaching an open piece of ground where a few benches had been placed, and where one lone figure sat, looking far too serene and content for her liking.

"Kurama!" she wailed, launching herself at him.

"Botan!" he blurted, standing up and leaping back as she stumbled over the bench, almost hitting the ground. "What on Earth are you doing here?"

She staggered a little before stepping over the bench and marching up to him.

"You're fighting Hiei today?" she asked quietly.

Kurama glanced at something over her shoulder and gave a slight backward jerk of his head before meeting her eyes again.

"Yes, that's correct," he said smoothly.

"So…" she began, her throat tightening and her voice weakening. "You had me… Do all that with the fruit juice… And you're fighting Hiei?"

"Yes," he replied. "Hiei is a very formidable opponent, I could not have faced him as I am."

"You… You cheated!"

"No, I just had to formulate a better plan for victory."

"But if you beat him it will be all my fault!"

"That's a very strange way to look at this."

Botan shook her head, her eyes blurring slightly as tears threatened.

"I thought you were my friend!" she said.

"I am your friend Botan," he replied. "And I appreciate all that you did for me with–"

"You just used me so that you could beat Hiei today!" she cut him off. "How could you do that to me?"

Kurama looked at something beyond Botan again and this time she turned her head to see what he was watching, finding Yusuke coming up behind her. As she turned back to Kurama she saw him nod at Yusuke.

"Why didn't you tell me this was why you needed to transform?" Botan demanded.

She flinched slightly as she felt Yusuke's hands landing heavily on her shoulders, and she noticed that Kurama's eyes were still on Yusuke behind her.

"Come on, Botan," Yusuke said, gripping his fingers into her. "Let's go back to the arena and watch from there. Good luck, Kurama."

"Good luck?" Botan cried, twisting her head around to glare at Yusuke. "Are you out of your mind? He's going to fight Hiei!"

"Yeah, and we need to get out of the way," Yusuke flatly told her. "Now get your oar and let's get out of here."

Botan started to turn back to Kurama, pausing as she sighted Hiei a short distance from them, watching them with a blank expression. Within seconds of her meeting his eyes he turned his head to one side as though pretending to have seen something more interesting in another direction. Botan whimpered pitifully before turning to point a finger at Kurama. Her mouth worked through the beginnings of several speeches she wanted to make, but her voice failed her every time, and after another squeeze to her shoulders from Yusuke she reluctantly materialised her oar and clambered onto it, giving Kurama one last hurt and disappointed glare before shooting off.

"This is terrible…" she muttered, watching Hiei as she passed him.

He kept his head turned in any direction but hers, and before long he was fading from her view. She turned around to see the arena in the distance, the sounds of cheers and Koto's voice frantically calling another ongoing fight gradually growing in volume. Of everything she had been expecting for that day, Kurama fighting Hiei had certainly not been one of the things to cross her mind. The only coherent thought she could focus on was that Kurama had known about this and had been preparing for this, and she had helped him to do it. She had stolen from spirit world and helped him grow the Fruit of Previous Life that was going to help him transform for his fight, and if he defeated Hiei, if he hurt Hiei, it would be all her fault.

Botan gasped, memories of some of Kurama's crueller demon plants returning to her mind: what it he set the death plant on Hiei? Could she stand to watch as it drained the life from him? Botan slowed in her flight, glancing back at the barely visible site of the B division ring, silently wondering if she would have time to dump Yusuke at the arena and fly back to B division before the fight started.

* * *

"Oh God, I left my socks soaking in the sink!" Kuwabara wailed.

Koenma rolled his eyes again.

"Tell me something I actually want to hear, Kuwabara," he said patiently. "How did Yukina get a picture of her brother from the ice village? Surely she's so heavily pregnant right now she couldn't possibly make the journey there and back?"

"Botan went for her," Kuwabara replied with a shrug.

"Botan?" Koenma asked. "My Botan?"

"Your Botan?" Kuwabara echoed, his eyebrows twisting.

"My ferry girl?" Koenma pressed.

"Yeah, why?"

"How did Botan know where to find the ice village in demon world?"

"I dunno! She said she's been there before, I think."

"When has Botan ever been to the ice village?"

"I dunno! When she was in demon world before?"

"When was Botan ever in demon world before?"

Koenma rubbed at his chin, glaring at Kuwabara accusingly. Kuwabara shook his head nervously and Koenma turned to George, who was sweating profusely.

"What do you know about this, ogre?" he asked.

"Nothing, Sir!" George squeaked back.

Koenma was less than convinced, and as though on cue, Botan appeared above his head, flying through the stands shamelessly on her oar in her pink kimono, with Yusuke hanging behind her.

"Botan!" he yelled.

She did not even look in his direction, instead her head turned back and forth between Yusuke and the screen broadcasting the ongoing fights, a distinct air of panic hanging about her.

"Botan!" Koenma yelled again.

Yusuke released Botan's oar and hopped down a few steps to the bench Koenma and the others were sat at, sidling along it to join them.

"Don't let her get away, Yusuke!" Koenma said urgently, pointing over George's shoulder at Botan.

Yusuke paused, eying Koenma over as though he thought he had gone mad before turning to look back at Botan. As he watched her she began to turn around in a tight circle as though to fly away again and he quickly ran back out into the aisle, grabbing at her oar with both hands.

"Whoa, Botan!" he said. "Where are you going? And get off your oar, you idiot! Everybody can see what you are when you're flying about on this thing!"

She looked back at him, her face twitching through various different expressions.

"Are you worried about Kurama fighting Hiei?" Koenma called over to her.

She gave him an incredulous look but dropped off her oar and banished it regardless.

"Come and sit down," Yusuke said to her.

She glared at him almost as though she barely recognised him, but he ignored her look, grabbing her elbow and dragging her along the bench to rejoin Kuwabara, Koenma and George.

"She's worried about Kurama fighting Hiei," Koenma said to Kuwabara.

"Yeah, I guess," Kuwabara agreed.

"Because she's in love with Kurama," Koenma said, his voice overlapping Kuwabara's, who said: "because she's got the hots for Hiei."

"What?" they both said, tilting their heads at each other. "No, you've got it the wrong way around," they said together.

They exchanged confused and sceptical looks before turning to Botan, their faces quickly dropping as they found her feeling about herself desperately, inadvertently loosening her clothing in the process.

"What are you doing?" Yusuke asked her.

"I-I… I've lost it!" she whimpered. "I must… Oh my goodness, I left it at Kurama's apartment!"

"What, your brain?" Yusuke grumbled.

"When were you at Kurama's apartment?" Kuwabara asked Botan.

"More importantly Botan," Koenma said sternly. "What were you doing at Kurama's apartment?"

"More like who was she doing at Kurama's apartment!" Yusuke said, chuckling darkly.

"I left it there, I can't believe I left it there!" Botan muttered, her breathing quickening.

"Calm down!" Yusuke said. "It can't be that important, whatever it was…"

"But I can't… I can't believe I left it…"

* * *

"Hiei," Kurama said as they walked towards the ring together. "Good luck."

"Hn, ridiculous," Hiei replied.

They stopped by the edge of the ring and waited for the official announcement that they could step up and begin their match. Kurama turned to Hiei there and extended a hand towards him. Hiei kept his hands in his pockets, looking down at Kurama's offer for several seconds before lifting his eyes to Kurama's with a smirk.

"Don't even think about going easy on me, fox," he warned. "I intend to fight to win, you better do the same."

"Naturally," Kurama replied, retracting his unaccepted offer of a handshake. "Just be sure that you don't disappoint me, Hiei."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Is basically just Hiei vs. Kurama. From start to conclusion. Hopefully how it plays out will be unexpected. **Chapter 36: The Showdown**

 **A/N:** Plot! Finally I am reaching one of the scenes I envisaged in this fic from the beginning! (Hiei vs Kurama that is).


	36. The Showdown

**Recap:** Not really sure that anything actually happened last time… Um… (Goes and checks…) Okay, Yusuke beat Kokou and advanced to the fourth round, Botan freaked out about Hiei vs. Kurama, Koenma started to get suspicious about Botan's recent behaviour, and Botan left something behind at Kurama's apartment (plot for part three of story!).

* * *

 **Chapter 36: The Showdown**

"I can't look," Botan said, covering her face with her hands. "But I can't look away!"

She lowered her hands again, watching the big screen as Kurama and Hiei walked into the centre of the ring.

"I can't look!" she cried, covering her face with her hands again. "Oh, but I can't look away!"

"Shut-up, Botan!" Yusuke snapped at her impatiently.

Despite knowing that Yusuke had been very rude about it, Botan knew that he was right, and so she kept quiet after that. She clasped her hands together and pressed them down against her knees to stop herself from covering her eyes again. She wanted to watch what was happening, but at the same time she had a horrible fear that it was going to go horribly wrong somehow. Kurama would transform because of her, but he would not be able to use those seeds he had been keeping Hana for because of her, and that just complicated matters further. The wait for the start of the fight alone was almost killing her.

"I hope Kurama wins," she heard a voice mutter.

She leaned forwards, looking past Yusuke, George and Koenma to see Kuwabara sitting watching the screen through a tense squint.

"What are you doing here, Kuwabara?" she asked him. "When and how did you even get here?"

"I'm here because of this," he replied, holding out a piece of folded paper towards her.

Botan took the paper and opened it out, at first not understanding the significance of it.

"This is just a picture of Hiei," she said with a shrug. "It's a very good picture. It looks like something Rui might have drawn, did you know that Rui was a very talented… Oh, I see… Rui did draw this. And she put it in her letter to Yukina…"

"Yeah," Kuwabara said, snatching the picture back from her.

"Watch it!" Koenma complained as he was crushed between Kuwabara and George.

"Yeah, and as soon as Kurama sets his death plant on Hiei, I'm going down there to kick his ass!" Kuwabara said.

"Well that's certainly brave of you…" Botan muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Wait a minute, aren't you afraid? Because you certainly ought to be, Mister Kuwabara! You've been…"

Botan slowly stopped talking as she caught Yusuke, George and Koenma all watching her expectantly. She had been about to suggest that Kuwabara ought to be afraid that he had been physically involved with Hiei's beloved sister, but as memories of exactly what she had been doing the night before flooded her mind she started to feel too hypocritical about accusing Kuwabara of anything. Still, she mused, it was unusual that Kuwabara should be angry and wanting to fight Hiei. She had always imagined that, the day he did finally learn that Hiei was Yukina's missing brother, he would be terrified and possibly even end his relationship with Yukina for fear of turning into fodder for the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. Anger and aggression had certainly not been the reactions she had ever imagined from him; and it was, frankly, a welcome, albeit brief, distraction from what was happening on the screen ahead of them.

* * *

Hiei spun his sword around his hand and smirked confidently.

"Hn. How long do you need?" he asked.

Kurama stood perfectly still in front of him, his arms at his sides, his face almost entirely neutral apart from the slightly curious look in his eyes that warned he was once more strategising – or rather, he was once more over-thinking.

"How long until your little potion takes effect?" Hiei pressed. "I have no more interest in fighting you in that body than you have of fighting me as you are. How long do we have to stall?"

"I have no need to stall," Kurama replied. "Make your move."

"You don't need to wait for that," Hiei said, his face dropping. "You've watched me fight often enough that you don't need to hesitate like you usually do."

"You do yourself a great disservice, Hiei."

"What?"

"If I don't need to observe your strategy today, that must mean that you always fight by the same formula and are predictable. Surely that is not the case."

Hiei's face dropped further. Even in combat the fox was managing to take the piss out of him. It was a quirk of Kurama's personality that Hiei more often hated than liked, and he often wondered where stemmed from: his fox side or his human side.

"For your sake I hope you have taken your fruity little power juice," Hiei growled, tightening his grip on his sword. "Because I won't be going easy on you."

"I hope you don't."

Hiei had heard enough. He charged directly towards Kurama, who did not so much as flinch, which was as Hiei had expected. Maybe Kurama thought he knew how the first few minutes of the fight would play out, but so did Hiei. The fox would be on the defensive and probably even throw around a few flowers or something to waste time until his potion took effect, and then the fighting would start in earnest: though even then it would probably be the same old crap of trickery and over-thinking. Hiei did respect that Kurama's intelligence in battle was admirable and often very effective, but he still preferred a more direct approach himself. And so, without hesitation, Hiei began swinging and jabbing his sword at Kurama.

As he had expected him to, Kurama dodged every blow but made no attempt at retaliation. It was frustrating, though Hiei managed to contain his anger as he reminded himself that soon Kurama would revert back to his full demon form, and once he did things would get a lot more interesting. He had witnessed first hand how badly Kurama's experiment with growing his own Tree of Previous Life had gone: the fruit from the plant basically turned him into an aggressive, blood-thirsty monster; but that merely made the prospect of fighting him more interesting. Usually he was so calm and calculating, it would be refreshing to fight him when he was in a state of mind that actually wanted a true test of strength and endurance.

The one-sided nature of their tussle did not last long however, as Hiei suddenly felt something tugging his sword, almost pulling it from his hand altogether. He staggered to a halt and found himself in a familiar position with Kurama: the fox's rose-whip was wrapped around his blade, too tightly for him to have any hope of freeing it. The blade would not cut the whip and trying to wrestle it free would take too long, so Hiei simply dropped the sword and launched himself at Kurama, He punched forwards, slightly surprised when his fist actually connected with Kurama's jaw, but apparently Kurama had allowed him the first hit as a distraction, as Hiei promptly felt a fist in his gut that had been thrown with more force than his hit had. Torn between anger at being caught out and delight that Kurama was actually taking the fight seriously at last, Hiei flew at him and again punched a fist at his face – but this time Kurama blocked the blow, his other hand swinging around between them.

Hiei staggered back, looking down at himself first before looking over at Kurama. He had some sort of plant wrapped around his hand that had formed a blade, and he had apparently just used it to create a shallow but long cut across Hiei's chest. Hiei looked down at himself again, grabbing at the tear in his shirt and ripping it open further to inspect the wound he had. It really was a minor wound, but that meant nothing – surely it was a deliberate manoeuvre to plant some sort of seed inside him. Hiei poked his fingers into the gash and felt around until he found what he sought, retrieving three seeds from the wound.

"Hn, nice try," he snorted, closing his now blood-soaked fist around the seeds and destroying them in a flare of energy.

Hiei looked over at Kurama to gauge his reaction, but found himself no longer facing a red-haired human: apparently the Fruit of Previous Life had finally taken effect, as Kurama was once more in his tall, silver-haired fox demon form. Hiei started to tell him that now the fight was actually going to be interesting for him but stopped as he heard the all-too-familiar sound of a demon plant growing rapidly behind him. He spun around, tilting his head slightly as he watched a dull green plant sprout from the ground by the edge of the ring. It grew to barely half Hiei's height before it stopped, and it did not look particularly threatening: in fact it looked a lot like that stupid little thing that had been cruising around Kurama's apartment, only this one did not have any petals about its head.

"That is the male doppelganger plant," Kurama told him. "Do you know what it does?"

"I don't care what it does," Hiei frankly replied, turning back to Kurama. "A stupid little plant like that isn't going to be enough to beat me, so I hope you've planned out a better strategy."

Kurama smiled at him, which was always a slightly worrying sight when he was in his full demon form.

"I'm afraid not, no," he replied.

* * *

Botan's jaw dropped. The plant that had grown by the edge of the ring was not identical to Hana, but clearly it was of the same species. It was a lot bigger, though still relatively small compared to the sort of plants Kurama usually used in battle, but it had the same spindly body and the same top-heavy head – though it did not have any petals on its head, it still had the same set of spiked teeth and its head was instead bumpy all over as though it was covered in warts. However, unlike Hana, it sat perfectly still, rooted into the ground, its head tilted downwards facing the fighters. Botan wished then that she had bothered to ask more questions about what sort of plant it was, but she had been too repulsed by Kurama's initial answer, which was currently echoing around her head: "the male variety eats blood and spirit energy".

Botan's face twisted slightly as she imagined the plant in the ring sucking blood and spirit energy from Hiei. It was an unpleasant thought, but at the same time she wondered how something so small could be powerful enough to actually disable an opponent like Hiei, who was so fast and strong. Though, she thought darkly, Hana had managed to fit a whole demon world maggot into her mouth in one bite, and the insect had been about as big as her entire head, so it was probably not unreasonable to assume that the plant in the ring would be able to gets its jaws around Hiei and do some substantial damage. Would it just eat him, she wondered? Would it eat him in the same way Hana had eaten maggots or would it just suck out his blood and demon energy? Neither outcome was a pleasant thought, but at least with the second possibility there was a chance that Hiei would survive.

Botan then realised that what she was watching could end with only one fighter walking away alive.

"They won't kill each other, will they?" she asked, turning to Yusuke.

"I dunno," he said with a shrug. "I would have said no, but Kurama was pretty determined last night that this was a fight to the death."

"Nuh-uh, Urameshi!" Kuwabara disagreed. "Kurama said he'd leave some of Hiei for me!"

Botan turned to Kuwabara and scowled at him, though silently she was once more thankful for the distraction he was offering her.

"It's really none of your business!" she pointed out.

"Of course it's my business, Botan!" he argued back. "Hiei's been mocking poor, sweet, innocent Yukina all this time!"

"Well, not that I don't completely agree with you, but it's really not your place to interfere," she replied.

"Yes it is," he said stubbornly. "Yukina hired Hiei to find her brother, and all this time he's been saying stuff like "he's probably dead already". He must have known about this. There's no way his freaky little eye didn't see this."

Botan started to frown, and she glanced around the others, relieved to see that they were starting to look confused too.

"I mean seriously," Kuwabara continued. "If there was a guy in the living world who looked exactly like me, I'd know about it, even without having a telescopic eye to look for him. What's Hiei's excuse?"

"What?" Koenma echoed, eying Kuwabara over incredulously.

"Yukina's brother looks exactly like Hiei!" Kuwabara yelled back. "He's the same size, he's the same shape, he dresses the same, he has a fake jagan eye too, he uses a sword too and he's just as ugly as Hiei. How is it possible that there is another fire demon here in demon world who looks this much like Hiei, and Hiei doesn't know about it?"

"It's not possible…" Yusuke said slowly.

"It's not possible that he's this stupid…" Koenma muttered, narrowing his eyes at Kuwabara.

"Exactly," Kuwabara said, apparently not hearing Koenma's remark. "Of course Hiei must know the guy in this picture. He's just not telling us because he's an unhelpful little bastard!"

"…Are you seriously saying you think that the guy in that picture is somebody else and not actually Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

"Of course this isn't a picture of Hiei!" Kuwabara snapped angrily. "How could it be? If it was, that would mean that Hiei was Yukina's brother!"

"…Uh-huh…" Koenma said, watching Kuwabara expectantly.

All five sat in silence for a long time, Kuwabara looking angry and the other four looking increasingly confused and incredulous.

"Ow…" Botan said, touching her hands to the sides of her head. "I think my brain just exploded…"

"Oh well," Yusuke said with a sigh. "And all this time Hiei thought it was a bad thing that Kuwabara is so stupid…"

* * *

Hiei had been stabbing and slicing at Kurama for several minutes without connecting once but also without suffering any retaliation from the fox. It was starting to irritate him, which was making his attacks less accurate. It seemed like Kurama was stalling for something, though surely now that his little potion had worked he no longer needed to wait to fight back. This was not at all what Hiei had been expecting: he had thought that Kurama's home-grown Fruits of Previous Life turned him into a mindless fighting machine, but he seemed a lot calmer and more in control this time. In fact, the only difference between the Kurama he was facing now to the one who had stepped into the ring with him was his appearance and the increase in demon energy radiating off of him. He was still calm and calculating Kurama despite being in his full demon form; apparently his experiments with those fruits had finally paid off. But just how far had he managed to mutate the fruits he grew? Surely the effects of his transformation would not be permanent, and if time was of the essence, why was he wasting so much of it now?

Hiei leapt back from Kurama and paused. He paused to see if Kurama would launch an attack and he paused to check on two other things: first he checked to see if Kurama was out of breath or in any way injured and secondly he checked on that strange plant by the edge of the ring. Kurama was unscathed and not in the least out of breath – which was quite annoying, since Hiei himself was starting to sweat and he was breathing a little harder than usual – and the plant was still standing dormant where it had been planted. It looked harmless, though Hiei knew better than to judge anything about Kurama based purely on how it appeared to the eyes. He had no idea what the purpose of the plant was, but, thanks to Botan's big mouth, he did know that the seed for the plant had come from that bug-eating little monstrosity Kurama had been keeping like a pet in his apartment, and that thing had been easily destroyed with a single slice of his sword and a burst of flames. That being the case, the bigger version Youko Kurama had planted by the ring ought to be just as easily killed, and killing it was the highest priority in Hiei's mind right then, since he believed that it was the main part of Kurama's strategy and if it was at all like the smaller version from his apartment, it had the ability to uproot itself and start running about, which was an added complication he did not need.

With that thought in mind, Hiei tightened his grip on his sword and darted towards the plant. It was a gamble, since the plant might attack somehow, but it was one he knew he was going to have to take to force Kurama into an alternate offence and to hopefully end the fight. A short, fast and hard fight favoured Hiei, but a long, slow and strategic fight would favour Kurama, so it was imperative that Hiei took control and upped the pace of the action.

As he neared the plant, Hiei saw Kurama start towards him, which he had predicted would happen. He made to swing a backhanded swipe at the plant, altering the angle of his attack at the last possible second. Kurama somehow managed to punch him in the side of the head before his sword connected, but the blow did little to reduce the damage Hiei's sword made as it collided with Kurama's right shoulder and tore downwards diagonally across his chest, leaving a long and almost dangerously deep bloody gash.

Hiei hit the ground, his head throbbing slightly from the blow he had taken. He was forced to blink several times to clear his vision, which had blurred slightly. Kurama's punch had perhaps been harder than it had felt, his rush of adrenaline having numbed the pain, but it had not done enough damage to keep Hiei down, only to push him back from the plant. Hiei started to rise, watching Kurama stumble slightly, before a strange look passed over his features, his golden eyes widening slightly. Hiei tensed as they both fell under a shadow, and looking up he saw that the plant had suddenly become animated, as though the smell of Kurama's blood had awoken its hunger. Hiei quickly leapt back twice, taking himself out of the plant's reach. He made to take a third leap to be sure of his safety, but staggered and fell onto his rear-end in shock as the plant lunged forwards, biting its jaws down over Kurama's shoulder, one jaw covering his back the other covering the length of the wound Hiei had created.

Hiei watched on in stunned silence as the plant proceeded to suck at Kurama's body, his demonic energy lessening by the second.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Yusuke blurted, standing up and leaning forwards.

"Did Kurama just mess up?" Kuwabara asked. "Kurama never messes up!"

"Oh no!" Botan wailed. "It must be because the plant is faulty! And it must be faulty because of the way he got the seed for it!"

"I don't believe this…" Yusuke muttered.

All five – Kuwabara, George, Koenma, Yusuke and Botan – were on their feet and watching intently as the demon plant in the ring mercilessly drained blood and demon energy from Kurama. Hiei was still sitting several feet back from the plant, watching with as much horrified confusion in his eyes as the five watching them from the arena.

"Well folks, this is a definite first!" Koto's voice echoed around the arena. "In all my years of calling tournament action, I've never once seen a plant turn on the demon controlling it, and I've definitely never seen one of Kurama's strategies fail him so horribly! It looks like the plant is literally feeding off of Kurama's blood and demon energy, and it appears to be getting bigger from the feed – I only wish it would open its jaw a little so that we could actually see how the plant is doing this: it is just sucking from Kurama's open wound or did it use its teeth to bite in there? Can we get a better angle on this fight? The audience here want to see more blood!"

"I despise that neurotic, single-minded bitch!"

Kuwabara, George and Yusuke all turned to Botan in shock at her words, but she did not notice them, her eyes still fixed on the screen ahead of them. Koenma did not look in the slightest surprised at her outburst.

"Can we at least get audio on this feed?" Koto cried. "It looks like Youko Kurama is screaming in agony, and that's one sound this girl would love to hear!"

Botan growled, gripping her hands into her sleeves. On the screen the plant holding onto Kurama was undeniably getting bigger. Its stalk was growing much thicker but not any taller, and it head was swelling. The textured surfaces of its jaws were starting to turn smooth as they were stretched, and eventually the plant almost literally spat Kurama out, its head dropping to the ground with a thud. It looked like Hana had after Botan had fed her the demon world maggot: apparently the plant had just had a good feed and now it was settling down to digest its meal.

Kurama was left on all fours and breathless. His long silvery hair was hanging down around him, obscuring his face and most of his upper body from clear view, but even watching the screen the audience could see the blood dripping from his chest. Hiei slowly got back to his feet, returning his katana to its sheath at his side. Apparently even he could see that Kurama was in no fit state to continue.

"I don't get it," Yusuke said, shaking his head. "If this ends because Kurama messed up, I'm gonna be seriously pissed off! Kurama never messes up! That plant was faulty!"

Botan whimpered. If the plant was faulty, that was surely at least partly her fault. She had always known that Kurama should not have used those crazy fruits that grew from the odd-looking Tree of Previous Life her spirit energy had grown.

"You're just bitter because you bet on Kurama winning," Koenma commented.

"You gambled on this fight?" Botan roared, rounding on her boss.

"Just between ourselves," Yusuke told her. "Me and Kuwabara bet on Kurama winning."

"And George and I bet on Hiei," Koenma added.

"I didn't bet on anyone," George said, scratching his head.

"Yes you did," Koenma corrected him.

"But I don't even have anything to gamble with, Lord Koenma Sir!" George pointed out. "You took all of my money!"

Koenma sighed but said nothing more.

"I think it's deplorable that you all bet against your friends like that!" Botan scolded them.

"You're just mad that you missed your chance to place a bet," Kuwabara muttered.

"I would never do anything so low!" Botan argued.

"If you had been here, who would you have bet on?" Koenma asked her.

She gasped indignantly.

"Neither!" she hissed. "Sir, how could you even think that I would stoop so low as to–"

"Never mind," Yusuke interrupted her. "It looks like it's about all over down there anyway. Though I have to say, I am a bit disappointed that Kurama messed up with his plant. I thought this was gonna be a really exciting fight, but… It was quite crap, really."

* * *

"Hn, you've lost more than half your demon energy, I could finish you with one well-aimed kick of my boot," Hiei said confidently.

"Don't be foolish, Hiei," Kurama replied.

The fox lifted his head enough to bring his face into Hiei's line of sight. His face was as pained with exhaustion as his body, which was frankly quite amusing to Hiei.

"Foolish?" he snorted. "Me? You're the one who over-thought this whole thing, and now look: it's backfired on you. I always warned you that this would happen to you one day. I always told you that one day you would waste too much effort on strategy and thinking and hesitating, and one day you would face an opponent who would show you the error of your ways. You say I'm too direct and brutal, but let me now show you why my way is better than yours."

"Stop!" Kurama snarled, slowly rising to his feet.

Hiei stopped his advance, deciding that he would humour the fox before he ended the fight as a last favour to an old ally.

"You always say that the only thing you hate more than being underestimated is when you yourself underestimate an opponent," Kurama said, his voice slightly strained, one hand pressed to the wound on his chest. "If you think you can still defeat me with sword tricks and basic hand-to-hand combat, you are sorely underestimating me. I may have lost some blood and a substantial amount of my demon energy but don't let that fool you – I am still quite capable of beating you."

Hiei smirked, surprised to hear Kurama talk so arrogantly to him.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" he asked. "I was happy to just slap you about until you lost consciousness, but if you want something more complete, I will gladly oblige you."

"Do what you think is best," Kurama replied.

"Fine then," Hiei said.

He reached a hand up and pulled off his bandana, opening his jagan eye.

"I'll show you why a strong offence wins every time," he added.

Hiei began unwinding the warding bandages from around his right arm, which was starting to spark with dark energy. Kurama looked like he might be smiling slightly, but Hiei could only assume that it was in acceptance of his fate: Kurama knew as well as anyone that once Hiei had launched the dragon, it would not rest until it had consumed its victim. Hiei had not really wanted to use such a desperate tactic to win – killing Kurama was not something he actually wanted to do, despite having pretended otherwise going into the fight. He believed that Kurama did not intend to kill him either, but both valued honour above all else, and the most honourable death for a warrior was in combat, so perhaps it was fitting that their fight should be one to the death after all.

"Any last words?" Hiei asked as he dropped the remainder of the bandage at his side.

"I hope you're sure about this," Kurama quietly replied.

"…Strange choice of words…" Hiei muttered.

Hiei took position to launch his attack, only hesitating when Kurama held out his hands, rapidly enveloping himself in a smokescreen. It seemed like a ridiculous move – desperate, almost – as it would do nothing to stop the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, which would of course find Kurama by his energy signal. It was so pathetic it almost made Hiei feel a slight pang of pity for his old ally – but only almost.

"Dragon of the Darkness Flame!" he yelled, releasing the black dragon from his arm.

The dragon burst forth in an eruption of black flames, jaws wide, and dived into the cloud of smoke surrounding Kurama. Hiei expended his energy into the dragon to drive it onwards and it took an effort to hold himself at that point when he saw the dragon emerging from the other side of the smoke with a silver-haired fox demon between its jaws. The dragon arced upwards and around, its jaws slowly closing around Kurama, who was apparently trying to stop the attack with his hands and feet pressed against either jaw of the beast, but it was a battle he was slowly losing. Hiei doubted that Kurama could have stopped the dragon if he had been at full strength, but the way he was he had no hope of stopping it. Within seconds of the dragon catching him, Kurama had vanished into its jaws and the dragon had wound itself around Hiei's arm again, leaving only a charred image of Kurama on a rock far from the ring and Hiei feeling exhausted.

Hiei touched a hand to his chest, surprised to find that it felt tight again. It was that same strange feeling he had felt the night before when he was with Botan. What was that? It was really annoying and distracting. As he looked over at the remains of his ally he felt it get tighter. He turned his attention to the dissipating smoke instead, seeing that the weird plant Kurama had relied so heavily on had wilted in a sticky pile of goo. It looked like it had broken apart and spilled its innards. Perhaps the dragon had damaged it on its way to catch Kurama. It looked quite pitiful, and Hiei silently wondered what had gone wrong with Kurama's plan: though he did not wonder for long, as two things happened at once, and neither one was welcome. First of all he was hit by a wave of exhaustion that made him stagger and his eyelids droop and secondly he heard something that kept his mind fully alert and awake but was unfortunately not enough to keep his body fully awake.

"Do you regret trying to kill me, Hiei?"

Maybe it was madness, Hiei mused, or perhaps the start of a dream since he was so close to sleep. It had sounded like Kurama's voice, but it was not Youko Kurama's voice, it was Shuichi's voice – which made even less sense.

"Or maybe you just regret your earlier hubris."

Hiei blinked heavily, one knee buckling slightly beneath him. As tired as he was, he was almost certain that he was not imagining hearing Kurama's voice.

"I may well have over-thought this day Hiei, but perhaps you were too reckless."

At the sound of something squelching unpleasantly Hiei turned towards the dying demon plant, his eyes widening as much as they could against his heavy eyelids as he saw one of the plant's browning jaws slide aside.

"I appreciate the point you were trying to make," Kurama said, rising from beneath the plant, once more in his red-haired human form. "But now it's my turn. You never even asked me what the doppelganger plant does, despite me allowing you that opportunity. Had you known, I'm sure you wouldn't have just wasted all of your energy on that last attack."

"…How is this…?" Hiei mumbled out as Kurama started to stagger across the ring towards him.

"The doppelganger plant feeds off of blood and spirit energy," Kurama explained. "And from the blood and spirit energy that it absorbs, it creates a doppelganger – or clone – of its victim. I never intended for this plant to attack you, I needed it to attack me. I let you draw blood from me to instigate the attack, and I stalled this fight so that I would revert back to this form shortly after the plant had taken what it needed from me. With half of my energy gone and a significant blood loss, once I reverted back to this human body, my energy signal was negligible compared to the one emitted by the clone my plant created. Your dragon attacked the clone because that was the last thing you saw: Youko Kurama. All I had to do was create a small confusion to allow me to open the plant and release the imitation Youko."

Kurama gave Hiei that smile that always seriously pissed him off.

"So you see Hiei, sometimes it's good to think," he said gently.

Hiei staggered slightly, only managing to stay upright because Kurama reached out one hand and caught his shoulder to steady him on his feet. He reached his other hand into his hair and produced a small blade of grass. He flicked his wrist and the blade broke apart, frittering to the ground.

"Isn't this almost comical?" he asked, smiling at Hiei with that irksome smile again. "Neither of us has enough energy left to launch a decent attack. I suppose I could just let you fall to the ground unconscious and I would be declared the victor, but we did promise that this would be a fight to the death, and you definitely just tried to kill me."

Hiei wanted to tell the fox to just shut-up and kill him already. He was drained completely and seconds away from passing out, all this talking was just pointless gloating as far as he was concerned.

"So I hope you don't mind if I just borrow this," Kurama said, reaching a hand towards Hiei's hip.

Hiei watched helplessly as Kurama drew out his sword. He pressed the tip against Hiei's chest, twisting it slightly from side to side until blood began to trail down the length of the blade, before angling the weapon downwards and resting the hilt against the side of one of his feet.

"Now all I have to do is let go," he said, lessening his hold on Hiei's shoulder slightly and allowing him to drop forwards slightly to illustrate his point.

Hiei gave Kurama a scowl but said nothing.

"Do you have any regrets, Hiei?" Kurama asked him.

"Just one," Hiei faintly replied. "And that's that I had to die listening to you talking shit."

Kurama gave him another of his infuriating smiles before opening his hand.

* * *

Kuwabara and George hugged each other and Koenma, Yusuke and Botan stood leaning forwards, all five holding their breaths in anticipation of what was going to happen next. Kurama had taken Hiei's sword and pierced it into his chest before angling it against his foot in such a way that if Hiei were to fall forwards – which he was inevitably going to do due to his exhaustion after unleashing the Dragon of the Darkness Flame – he would impale himself on his own sword and surely die.

"Well I take back what I said about Kurama disappointing me," Yusuke muttered. "Looks like he was just as insightful and brutal as ever."

"I'm scared!" Kuwabara said. "Kurama's always been the most scary! He's always hiding something! How do we know he won't do that to us someday?"

"Let's all pray that Kurama never uses that plant on you, Kuwabara," Koenma said flatly. "One of you is already more idiot than we can handle, we definitely don't need two of you."

"He's not actually going to do this," Yusuke said. "He's proved his point already – he made Hiei look like an idiot for rushing in without planning ahead – and Kurama values his friends, so he won't kill Hiei, I'm sure of it."

"I'm not!" Botan wailed.

"I am absolutely sure of it," Yusuke said.

They all watched as Kurama opened his hand against Hiei's shoulder and took a step back. In his exhaustion Hiei did the only thing that he could and fell forwards, his actions driving his own sword through his chest completely and out his back in a burst of blood.

"How sure are you, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"…I'm not sure at all…" Yusuke replied weakly.

"Bloody and brutal ending to an unpredictable fight, folks!" Koto called out as the arena killed with a mixture of cries. "And Kurama advances to the fourth round!"

Botan shook her head and even Yusuke had paled.

"…I didn't think he'd actually do it…" Yusuke muttered.

"Me neither," Koenma agreed.

"Why?" Botan whimpered. "Why did he do it? He didn't have to! He had already won! Hiei was completely defenceless, there's no honour in that!"

"It's the nature of the tournament, Botan," Koenma told her. "Every fighter enters knowing that they may not make it through alive. Any demon who loses a fight but manages to keep his life has been extremely lucky."

"But it's unnecessary and it's unfair and it's too cruel!" she argued.

"It probably is unnecessary," Yusuke agreed. "But Kurama and Hiei promised each other that they would take this all the way. Hiei was probably happy to die like that. He wanted an honourable death, and better that he died in battle against an opponent he respected so much than in some sort freak accident doing spirit world's dirty work."

"Hey, I resent that remark!" Koenma snapped.

"You understand, don't you Botan?" Yusuke asked, touching a hand to Botan's shoulder.

"No!" she said faintly. "It's just not fair!"

She dropped back down onto the bench and buried her face in her hands, her mind only able to focus on one coherent thought: Hiei was dead and it was mostly her fault. Due to her dishevelled clothing, her sudden sitting down caused something to fall loose from one sleeve of her kimono, though in her distress she failed to notice it as it hit the ground and spun away from her along the bench. However although Botan did not notice what she had dropped, Koenma did. He looked down at the gleaming object on the ground for a long time before bending down to retrieve it, turning it over in his hand to confirm what it was. He stood up again and looked over at Botan, confirming that she was still completely absorbed in her own misery before tucking the object into his pocket: he had a feeling he might have a good use for it later on.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Kuwabara still doesn't get it (he's in denial, he's not stupid) and Botan bumps into a familiar face from the past (way, way back in the past) that leads to a few complications. **Chapter 37: The Realisation**

 **A/N:** I originally intended to have this fight end in a draw, but then when I decided to have Botan get involved with getting the fruit for Kurama, I figured this was better (ie more complicated – oh how I love the complications). Granted, this was a bit convoluted, but it was all relevant (I think)!

I'm not meaning to make Kuwabara stupid either, I do honestly think he would be so deep in denial he would not accept that Hiei is actually Yukina's brother – after all, in his eyes, Yukina is perfect and Hiei is perfectly awful.

It will all come together, but some of it not until the last few chapters…


	37. The Realisation

**Recap:** Kurama defeated Hiei in a battle that was really, really complicated… (Damn me…) Kuwabara didn't understand that Hiei is Yukina's brother… It was a short chapter (7K words, that's short by my usual standards, though on the long side for normal people…)

* * *

 **Chapter 37: The Realisation**

"No," Koenma said patiently.

"But I have to!" Botan wailed, struggling to free herself.

"It's too dangerous," Koenma told her. "Just wait out here with me, Yusuke will be back soon."

"But I want to go too!" Botan argued. "I always get left behind, it's not fair!"

Koenma sighed, turning his head more fully towards Botan. She looked quite pitiful as she thrashed about trying to get free, but the ogre holding her back looked even more pathetic.

"Just wait here," he said. "Yusuke won't be long."

Botan continued arguing and struggling against George's hold but Koenma decided to ignore her. He had told her that he was keeping her out of the hospital because it was too dangerous for her to go in there, but truthfully he was keeping her out because she was likely to make a complete fool of herself. She seemed to be forgetting that they were still in demon world and that her identity as a ferry girl should be kept hidden, which in itself was a problem, but on top of that she had become hysterical since watching Hiei and Kurama fight, and when she had heard that they had been taken to the nearby hospital, she had abandoned everyone else to try to find them. She had, quite amazingly, managed to get herself to the correct hospital, and only by luck had Yusuke and Kuwabara managed to catch her before she went inside.

Koenma had assigned George – despite innumerable complaints from the ogre – to hold Botan at bay whilst Yusuke and Kuwabara continued into the hospital to check on their friends. Ideally Koenma would have liked to have returned to the hotel, but trying to drag Botan away from the hospital only made her complain louder and that only made the ogre start his whining too, so he decided to just wait where he was and hope that Yusuke did not spend too long inside.

* * *

Kurama slowed as walked the long stretch of beds filled with injured demons from previous rounds of the tournament. Up ahead he could see Hiei, but he had been expecting to see at least Mukuro at his side, if not also a handful of Mukuro's other top soldiers: instead the only visitor Hiei appeared to have was a tall and lanky grey-skinned demon with silver hair and pointed ears. Kurama did not recognise the demon at all, but judging by the sling over his left arm and the bandages around his right thigh and chest, he had also been in the tournament and was recovering from injuries that had presumably cost him a win.

"Hello," Kurama said as he approached Hiei's bedside.

"Hey," the demon replied, nodding at him. "You know this little guy?"

Kurama looked down at Hiei, almost wanting to smile at what he saw. It was only ever when he was unconscious that Hiei looked calm and kind, and lying in the hospital bed amongst pure white sheets with his hair brushed back from his forehead, all three of his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open, he not only looked quite innocent, he also looked remarkably young.

"He's an old ally of mine," Kurama carefully replied, lifting his eyes to the demon standing at the other side of Hiei's bed.

"Me too," the demon replied. "We used to run together."

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly. The phrase "we used to run together" could mean several things, but in the lingo of demon world bandits, it meant that the demon opposite him had once been in a gang with Hiei. Kurama had never met any of Hiei's former allies – except of course for Gouki, who had only ever been a temporary partner in crime to them both – but his understanding had been that the bandits who had raised Hiei and taught him their ways had grown to fear and despise him, and to ultimately shun him from their group. Therefore, he thought, it seemed odd that one of those bandits would suddenly want to visit Hiei in hospital.

"He was always a really powerful little bastard," the demon continued. "But I heard he got beat today by some part-fox human, or something."

Kurama said nothing. Obviously the demon had not watched the tournament action from earlier that day.

"He looks harmless like that, huh?" the demon continued. "But I see he's got an extra eye now. He didn't have that when I knew him."

Kurama nodded but again said nothing. He had a slightly bad feeling about the presence of this stranger at Hiei's bedside, but he could not quite figure out what it was.

"There you are, you little son of a bitch!"

Kurama sighed before turning around to see Kuwabara charging down the aisle towards him, barging his way past demon medics as he went, only slowing when he almost knocked an enchantress off her feet. He paused long enough to apologise to her whilst gently pushing her aside, and then continued thundering towards Hiei's bed.

"Is he dead or asleep?" he asked Kurama as he reached him.

"He's asleep," Kurama replied. "He's hibernating after expelling all of his energy on the Dragon of the Darkness Flame."

"You didn't kill him?" Kuwabara asked.

Kurama shook his head at Kuwabara before turning to see Yusuke approaching him. Yusuke eyed Kuwabara over and heaved a sigh before turning his attention to Hiei.

"He's out cold, huh?" he asked, waving a hand over Hiei's face.

"Yes, and I imagine he will be for some time yet," Kurama replied.

"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara said, waving about the drawing he had been carrying with him since his arrival in demon world. "Well I'm just gonna sit here until he wakes up and explains this to me!"

"And then maybe somebody can explain to me how he hasn't figured this out yet…" Yusuke muttered, arching his eyebrows at Kurama.

"What are you looking at?" Kuwabara snapped at the demon standing on the opposite side of Hiei's bed.

"Probably about the ugliest face I've ever seen…" the demon muttered.

"I don't see any mirrors around here, so I guess you must be talking about Hiei!" Kuwabara sneered, sitting down into a chair positioned by Hiei's head.

"How are you, anyway?" Yusuke asked Kurama.

"Fine," Kurama lied.

Yusuke's face twitched slightly, an indication that he clearly thought otherwise, but he nodded regardless.

"I guess you'll be fit to go by the next round, right?" he asked.

"Of course," Kurama replied.

"What about the munchkin?" Yusuke asked. "We all thought you'd killed him back there."

"He did ask for a fight to the death," Kurama said, looking over at Hiei. "But he's still my friend, so I made sure it wasn't a fatal wound. Just something for him to think about."

"He tried to kill you," Yusuke pointed out.

"It was a feeble attempt, I assure you. The clone created from the doppelganger plant was enough to hold the dragon at bay for several seconds and that alone should tell you that Hiei was not attacking with his fullest power. He held back, and I can only assume that he did so because he never intended to kill me."

"That's a pretty big assumption…"

"Yeah, Kurama!" Kuwabara cut in. "Maybe he didn't use all of his power because he's so arrogant! Maybe he thought he could beat you easily with some half-assed attempt!"

"Shut-up, Kuwabara!" Yusuke moaned.

"Wake up, you little jerk!" Kuwabara yelled into Hiei's face.

"I'm really sorry I let him come in here," Yusuke said to Kurama.

"That's alright," Kurama said, smiling patiently. "I suppose it can't really be helped."

"And hey, who's that guy standing at the other side of the bed?" Yusuke asked, lowering his voice and moving close to Kurama. "Is he one of Mukuro's men?"

"No," Kurama replied. "I think he knew Hiei when he was much younger. I think Hiei may have once been a member of his gang."

Yusuke nodded, eying the demon over sceptically.

"Oh dear…" Kurama muttered under his breath.

"What?" Yusuke asked, turning back to him abruptly.

"Kuwabara I can almost tolerate, but I'm not so sure about this one…" Kurama said quietly, pointing a finger at something beyond Yusuke.

Yusuke turned around, his eyes doubling in size as he saw a bedraggled Botan pushing her way through medics, enchantresses and patients alike.

"I don't know how she got in here," Yusuke said. "Koenma had George holding her back outside. She didn't cope too well with watching the fight. I suppose she thought you'd killed her little lover boy."

"She looks terrible," Kurama said, tilting his head slightly. "She must have struggled hard to get in here."

"No," Yusuke said, shaking his head. "She's looked like that since she took me back to the arena to watch you guys fight. She's stressed out about something she left in your apartment."

Kurama was not sure what Botan could possibly have left in his apartment – he had partially suspected that she had taken Hiei there the night before – but by the look of her apparently it was something very important, as her hair was half down and her clothes were hanging about her as though she had been dragged through a bush backwards. He wondered why she had become so distressed about it. She still had a key to his apartment, and if she thought nothing of taking Hiei there for a night of passion, surely she could not have any reservations about returning there to retrieve whatever it was that she had left behind.

* * *

Botan squeezed her way between an irritated medic and a demon on crutches, finally reaching a clear path to join the others. She was only vaguely aware of the four figures gathered around the bed, her attention mainly focussed on the body lying on the bed itself. As she got closer she slowed her pace, almost wanting to cry in relief when she saw that Hiei's chest was slowly rising and falling, that he was still breathing, that he was merely sleeping peacefully and not lying there dead. She sighed heavily, stumbling the last few steps to reach the foot of his bed, where she stopped, covering her mouth with her hands and trying to regulate her breathing. He looked so small and so innocent and so helpless as he lay there, she became overcome with an urge to just grab him into her arms and kiss him all over – but even in her fragile state of mind she could appreciate that such a move would only get her thrown out of the hospital and would probably not win her any favour with Hiei himself if he ever found out.

"He's alive," she said eventually, turning to Kurama.

Kurama nodded at her tightly. She let her eyes wander a little lower and noticed that Kurama's clothing was pulled tight over his chest and one shoulder, presumably where he was sporting bandages over his wound.

"How are you?" she asked, her hands slipping from her mouth. "You must be feeling better, you're up and walking about!"

"I'm fine thank you, Botan," he replied. "But I'm not really sure that this is a good place for you to be. Hiei won't be here for long, you can see him when he's recovered."

"Oh hey, yeah, that's right!" Yusuke said. "Mukuro's on her way over here. She's taking Hiei back to her place. She said the healing chambers she has there are way better than the facilities here anyway."

Botan turned to Yusuke, who was watching Kurama curiously.

"What?" he asked. "Why are you looking at me like I just said something stupid?"

Kurama did not answer him, but Botan did not particularly care why. She instead turned her attention back to Hiei. He did look adorably cute like that, she thought, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"Kurama's right, Botan," she heard Yusuke say. "You should get out of here. This is a place for demons only."

"What about Kuwabara?" Botan asked, pointing at Kuwabara but not moving her eyes from Hiei.

"I'm here to kick this little guy's ass!" Kuwabara replied.

"Yeah, did you hear about this?" Yusuke asked, turning to Kurama. "Kuwabara's pissed off because Hiei couldn't find Yukina's brother, even though Yukina's brother looks, dresses, walks, talks and acts just like Hiei. Isn't that weird?"

"What?" Kurama echoed.

"We don't know that Yukina's brother walks, talks and acts like Hiei!" Kuwabara argued. "I bet Yukina's brother doesn't have that whiny, nasally voice like Hiei, and I bet he's a really decent guy, the type of guy who wouldn't walk out on his friends or try to kill them with a big scary dragon!"

"…What?" Kurama said, his face twisting.

"And I bet Yukina's brother doesn't walk like Hiei," Kuwabara added. "Hiei walks like he's got the biggest… Oh, hey Botan…"

Botan pulled a face at Kuwabara, feeling even more confused than ever as he started to turn red and avoided her eyes.

"Maybe you should just leave, Botan," Yusuke said. "Or at least cover yourself up instead of prancing about the place in your… Work uniform… If anyone figures out what you are, you'll be in big trouble!"

Botan sighed and rolled her eyes and started to tell Yusuke that she had been in demon world for over a week and nobody had suspected her of being a ferry girl before then, and frankly they would only suspect her now because of his big mouth blabbering on about it, but he cut her off midway through her compelling argument by tossing Hiei's scarf at her.

"Put that around your head," he suggested.

"Like this?" she asked, wrapping it around her head like a hood.

"Over your mouth would have been better…" Yusuke muttered.

Botan scowled at him but kept the scarf wrapped over her head, winding it around her neck to hold it in place. She felt that wearing it actually made her look more conspicuous, but it smelt like Hiei, and it was nice to have his scent so close to her again, so she did not protest.

"Botan's only here because of Hiei!" Kuwabara complained. "We're all only here because of Hiei! He's such a selfish little bastard, all he ever does is think about himself, he's so full of himself and caught up in his own little world he doesn't even care what anyone else is doing or thinking and meanwhile we're all looking out for him like he's actually our friend but he's not really much of a friend because he doesn't care about us at all – oh God no!"

Kuwabara leapt back out of his chair and the others all stiffened as they realised that Hiei's eyes – all three of them – were suddenly open and glaring at Kuwabara.

"…You woke up already?" Kuwabara asked meekly.

"You were making enough fucking noise to wake the dead!" Hiei snarled back. "Which for all I know I probably am! Waking up in bed to find you leering over me certainly sounds like hell to me!"

Kuwabara looked around the others nervously. Kurama stared back at him blankly, Yusuke shrugged and Botan shook her head.

"I'm here because of this, pipsqueak!" Kuwabara replied, thrusting the drawing out towards Hiei.

"Oh great, I'm really glad somebody saw fit to bring this moron here to demon world, because I've really been missing his misaimed insults and the delightful bouquet of human sweat, unwashed feet and garlic that follows him around everywhere!" Hiei complained.

"Hiei, you sound like shit, you should probably be resting," Yusuke said.

Hiei shifted his eyes to Yusuke, glaring at him menacingly – or at least, as menacingly as he could with three bloodshot eyes that would not quite open fully.

"You do sound quite exhausted, Hiei," Kurama added. "We were merely here out of concern for your welfare, but now that we can see that you are well, we will leave you to rest and recuperate in peace."

Hiei started to tell Kurama exactly where he could go but his words were shortly drowned out by Kuwabara, who had recovered from his initial shock of seeing Hiei awaken.

"Explain this, half-pint!" Kuwabara demanded, pushing the picture into Hiei's face.

Hiei snarled out some particularly inventive curse words, slapping the paper away with one hand. He only stopped his outburst when his eyes started to focus on what was drawn on the page, at which point he froze for several seconds before slowly moving his eyes to Kuwabara.

"What the hell is this?" he asked.

"That's what you need to tell me, tiny!" Kuwabara shot back. "This picture was drawn by Rui, Yukina's friend from the ice village?"

Hiei's eyes grew large and his face softened, but he said nothing.

"And now Yukina knows the truth," Kuwabara continued. "Now she knows all about your little secret, hamster legs!"

Hiei moved his eyes back to the picture.

"Impossible," he eventually concluded, moving his eyes back to Kuwabara again. "Yukina has never returned to the ice village. You're making this up. This is a joke."

Hiei turned his head, his eyes fixing onto Yusuke accusingly.

"Was this your idea, detective?" he snarled.

"Uh, no," Yusuke replied, shaking his head. "Though now that you mention it, that could have been a pretty damn good psyche!"

"Oh, Yusuke…" Kurama muttered, shaking his head.

"Rui drew this for Yukina and sent it back in her letter," Kuwabara explained to Hiei. "It was part of her reply to Yukina's letter?"

"Well now I know that you're talking out of the wrong orifice, because I never delivered Yukina's letter to the ice village," Hiei replied, turning his attention back to Kuwabara. "Yukina's letter never reached the ice village, so how do you explain her friend sending her a reply?"

"Botan did it," Kuwabara replied, pointing at Botan.

Botan whimpered and tensed as Hiei turned towards her, his eyes landing on her for the first time since he had awoken. He looked her over curiously before narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Also impossible," he concluded, turning back to Kuwabara. "The ice village is almost impossible for an average demon to locate, there's no way that air-headed woman was able to find it!"

"But she did," Kuwabara replied. "Botan delivered Yukina's letter to Rui, and she went back to collect Rui's reply yesterday, and Rui said she met Yukina's brother because he came back to the village looking for his mother, and she drew this picture because this is what he looks like!"

Hiei turned his head back to Botan, fixing her with a particularly intense glare, his jagan eye glowing, and she started to feel him reaching into her thoughts. She was vaguely aware that his powers of telepathy were restricted to reading surface thoughts only, and so she tried to think of something other than how it was that she had come to know the location of the ice village: but unfortunately she did not succeed in removing her thoughts entirely from that topic, and as she saw Hiei's face slowly contort she realised that he had seen exactly what she had been thinking about instead. And, although she had successfully managed to keep secrets like her misuse of The Stolen Moment to meddle in Hiei's past and her role as delivery girl between Yukina and Rui, she had been thinking about being inside Rui's house and seeing Yukina's drawings on her wall, and that had surely been enough for Hiei to figure out that she did know where the ice village was and that she had in fact been there.

"So come on, trial size, tell us why you couldn't find a guy who looks just like you!" Kuwabara said, breaking the tension.

Hiei's face twisted further and he turned sharply to Kuwabara.

"…What?" he asked.

"This is Yukina's brother," Kuwabara said. "He looks just like you. How can you not know this guy? If there was a guy anywhere in the living world who looked just like me, I would know about it. Do you seriously expect us to believe that your beady little magic eye couldn't find a guy who looks just like you?"

Hiei slowly looked around the others.

"…Are you sure this isn't a joke?" he asked, stopping at Yusuke again.

"We think Yukina probably figured it out," Yusuke replied. "…At least, we hope she did… Otherwise Kuwabara's stupid might be wearing off on her…"

"You've been mocking my darling Yukina, you sick bastard!" Kuwabara snapped. "Is that your idea of a joke?"

Hiei growled out a few indecipherable curses under his breath, his eyes drifting closed.

"Yukina is so sad about her brother, does it make you happy to upset her like that?" Kuwabara continued. "I think you're doing this deliberately, you nasty little dwarf!"

"Somebody get him out of here," Hiei growled, keeping his eyes shut.

"Yes, I think that might be best," Kurama agreed. "And you too, Botan," he added, turning to Botan.

"I'm not stupid, Hiei!" Kuwabara sneered, leaning closer to Hiei. "I know the real reason you're lying to Yukina like this!"

"Let's just wait a few more minutes," Yusuke said to Kurama and Botan. "His theory on that picture was amusing, his theory on Hiei's lies has got to be solid gold."

Kurama rolled his eyes but Botan was secretly as interested at Yusuke was to hear what Kuwabara was about to say next, and so she nodded at him to show her agreement that they should wait.

"You're doing this because you're jealous!" Kuwabara continued. "Don't think I haven't seen how you are with Yukina! The way you look at her like you're in love with her, the way you're always saving her, always talking to her in that nice voice you put on just for her, the way you're always doing stuff for her – I saw you once drying dishes for her, and you never lift a finger to do housework any other time, you lazy little bastard!"

"I have just about enough energy to boil this oaf in his own skin before I pass out again," Hiei grumbled. "So unless anyone wants to see this clown reduced to a steaming, sticky stain on the floor, I suggest somebody gets him out of my reach right now."

"You're in love with Yukina!" Kuwabara yelled.

Hiei snarled, his two normal eyes opening and moving to Kuwabara.

"You are, by far, the most unintelligent cretin I have ever come across!" he ground out. "Get out of my sight!"

"I'll go," Kuwabara agreed. "But not until you agree you'll stay away from Yukina from now on. Give me back her hiruiseki and don't bother ever coming back to Genkai's temple."

"Hey, whoa, Kuwabara, none of the rest of us agree with that!" Yusuke quickly pointed out.

"Hiei never comes there anyway," Kuwabara replied. "Except when he wants to try it on with Yukina. For such an evil little prick, he sure likes going for the nice girls. First he messed Botan's life up and now he's after Yukina too! And if he doesn't give me back Yukina's hiruiseki, I'm just gonna take it back right now by force!"

Kuwabara barely had time to look smug before he was on the floor on his back. Yusuke and Kurama leapt towards him but were too late to stop the first punch Hiei landed on Kuwabara's face. Thanks to Hiei being slower than usual and Yusuke being relatively sharp, Yusuke managed to knock Hiei's elbow as he jabbed down with a second punch, throwing his aim off so that he only managed a glancing blow at Kuwabara's jaw.

"You're supposed to be resting!" Yusuke yelled at him.

"Just get him out of here," Kurama said to Yusuke, pointing at Kuwabara as he spoke. "We'll all discuss this at a time and place where we can all be more sensible about it."

"Right," Yusuke agreed.

Kurama hooked his arms under Hiei's and pulled him off of Kuwabara.

"Come on you," Yusuke said, grabbing hold of Kuwabara.

Yusuke stood up and dragged Kuwabara with him, ignoring his complaints and forcing him back. Kurama started to lift Hiei to his feet but Hiei wrestled himself free of Kurama's hold, only to drop to his knees on the ground.

"Come on Hiei, you're meant to be resting," Kurama said to him.

"Just… Leave me alone," Hiei grumbled.

Seeing him breathless, shaking and sweating, Botan found herself acting on an instinct she was unaware of, dropping to her knees at his side and stroking his hair with one hand. He jerked away from her touch like an animal that had been hit with a stick, glaring at her almost accusingly.

"Hiei…" she whispered, reaching for him again. "Hiei please, you need to rest."

His expression did not soften any but he let her smooth a hand over the top of his head.

"Goodness Hiei, you're sweating all over," she said softly. "Come on, get back in bed."

He started to shuffle about and Botan moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. She half expected him to shove her off or else to just start yelling at her, but instead he stayed silent and allowed her to help him to his feet. She eased him back to sit on the bed and started to pull back, stopping abruptly as she felt his hands gripping into the material of her kimono at her shoulders. She frowned slightly in confusion, but he did not hold on for long before releasing her and shuffling around in the bed. Botan stood up at his bedside, watching him settle down again and pull the sheets over himself. He then did a distinct double-take at something at the other side of the bed. Botan looked up to see what had caught his attention, surprised to see a demon standing there watching them quietly. She had not noticed him there before, but she could not help but notice that there was something oddly familiar about him.

"Crazy witch!" he said suddenly, snapping his fingers and pointing at Botan.

"I beg your pardon?" she echoed, straightening her back indignantly.

"You're that crazy witch!" he said again. "I thought I knew you from somewhere! I didn't recognise you with hair, is that a wig? With the scarf on your head I can see it's you now though! So when did you become friends with Hiei again?"

Botan felt her insides slowly going cold and numb. The tall and lanky grey-skinned demon with silver hair and pointed ears in front of her was the same tall and lanky grey-skinned, silver-haired, pointy-eared demon she had met in the past. She was surprised that he would remember her after over 99 years, but for her it had only been a few months since she had last seen him, and there was no mistaking him. He was definitely the same bandit who had tried to stop her from kidnapping baby Hiei to return him to his mother, and apparently with Hiei's scarf over her head she had jogged his memory of seeing her in her hooded tracksuit top.

"No," she said, hurriedly unwrapping the scarf from around her head. "I mean, um, I don't know what you're talking about. Who are you anyway?"

Botan hurriedly deposited Hiei's scarf on the nightstand by his bed, and forced a false smile at the demon opposite her.

"Oh, it's definitely you!" he insisted.

"No it's not!" Botan said urgently, dipping her head and reaching up a hand to shield her face from his view. "I don't know what you're talking about! I've never seen you before in my life!"

Botan shuffled over to Kurama, moving herself behind him in the hope of hiding there.

"I guess she's still crazy," she heard the demon say.

He then proceeded to tell Hiei that some things never changed, but he ended his sentiment by calling Hiei that same horrid name he had called him when Botan had met him in the past.

"How dare you call him that?" she snapped, edging out from behind Kurama. "I already told you: his name is Hiei!"

"See, it is that same crazy witch who told us your real name," the demon said with a shrug.

Hiei turned his head to look directly at Botan, the look on his face was indescribable, but she could see the flashes of anger in his eyes, and she could sense that things would only get more complicated if she did not do something quickly.

"Oh goodness, I think that enchantress just lost the last of her healing cords – she's completely naked!" Botan blurted out, pointing over the demon's shoulder.

"What?" he yelped, turning around.

Botan hurriedly summoned her baseball bat and whacked it over the demon's head. By luck her blow was enough to make him lose consciousness and collapse to the ground; but neither Hiei nor Kurama had looked when she had faked her distraction, and both were now glaring at her.

"You should get some rest, Hiei," she suggested, dematerialising her bat and smiling at Hiei. "Come on Kurama, let's go."

Botan grabbed Kurama's arm and dragged him with her as she hurried from the hospital ward, silently hoping that by the time the bandit visiting Hiei awoke, Hiei himself was once more asleep.

* * *

Hiei picked up the glass jug of water from his nightstand, passing it over to his left hand and tipping it over at his side. He watched from the corner of his eye as the water spilled over the demon's face, continuing the assault until the jug was empty, ignoring the fact that the demon awoke halfway through his actions. The demon coughed and spluttered, struggling to his feet, wincing as his evident injuries caused him pain.

"I would ask what the fuck you're doing here, but I think that much is obvious," Hiei said flatly. "You never could stand the fact that I was ten times stronger than you before I was even toilet trained. You obviously just came here to delight in my defeat. Unfortunately for you, I've recovered about ten percent of my strength already – which is about five times the amount I would need to crush you like the vermin that you are. So if you want to live, I suggest you start talking. How do you know that woman who was just in here?"

The demon hesitated and Hiei growled.

"Keeping in mind that I don't need you to talk at all," Hiei reminded him. "I have other ways of finding out what I want to know."

He slowly and purposefully opened his third eye.

"But things can get quite messy when I use my jagan eye," he warned. "I can't guarantee that your mind will ever be the same once I've been inside it."

"Okay!" the demon hurriedly replied. "But I thought you already knew who she was! She's the crazy bitch who tried to kidnap you when you were just a snot-nosed little brat! She wanted to take you back to your mother, or something. She had a hood up back then, and she said it was because she was bald. It took me a few minutes to realise it was her, but there's no mistaking the way she talks, especially how she talks to you."

Hiei looked back in the direction Botan had disappeared in, though he wondered why, since she had long since vanished with Kurama.

"Impossible," he said, turning back to his one-time ally. "That woman is not a demon. She had never come to this realm before the last tournament three years ago. There's no possible way you could have met her that long ago in this world, and there's no possible way that she could have been the one who tried to kidnap me. She may be a meddling loudmouth, but she's no criminal, she wouldn't kidnap anyone. And besides, she's only known me for a few years. Tell me the truth."

"I am telling you the truth! That was the same crazy bitch who kidnapped you from us! She was obsessed with time and we only got you back eventually because she dropped you from the sky. She can fly on an oar!"

Hiei's face flickered slightly. Botan did of course fly on an oar and his last memory of that woman who had kidnapped him as a child was that he had blasted her out of existence before plummeting from the sky.

"We found you in a really strange place," the demon continued. "It was in the middle of nowhere, the skies were really cloudy… Actually, it was about the same place we found you the first time around… Didn't you fall from the sky then too? Is that something that you do – falling from the sky?"

"Only when there's scum like you around to catch me," Hiei replied sarcastically.

The demon at his side eyed him over cautiously before taking two awkward steps back from his bedside.

"Well it was good to see you again, cockw–I mean Hiei!" he said, grinning nervously.

Hiei turned his head from the demon. Perhaps if he had been reunited with the worthless fool a few years earlier he might have cared enough to beat him down, but Hiei had evolved past caring about such insignificant fools. The fact that the creature at his side would forever live a life of pitiful power and minimal intelligence was far more suffering than he could ever inflict upon him and so he decided to just ignore the bandit. After all, he had got what he had wanted out of him – apparently the woman who had kidnapped him as a child was Botan, as illogical as that seemed.

Or perhaps it was not so illogical, Hiei thought to himself as the demon at his bedside began edging away from him. If Botan really had delivered Yukina's letter to the ice village, she had to have known exactly where it was, since she lacked the ability to find it – he knew that for a fact because he had wasted countless years searching for it himself before resorting to having his jagan implant – and in order for her to know exactly where it was now, she had to have been there once before. In the time he had known her, he was certain that she had never even been to demon world except during the previous demon world tournament and the current one, so there was no possible way she could have found the village during the last few years, meaning she must have located it before that time. How and why she had been in demon world 99 years ago was a mystery in itself, but she had clearly been in the area at that time: Hiei could still recall seeing the newspaper report in the living world that had included a picture of Botan, drawn by a human alleging to have seen her by one of the portals 99 years ago. The portal she had been sighted near was the closest portal to the ice village that Hiei knew of, so it was not a ridiculous assumption to make that she had been in the living world 99 years ago and passed through the portal to demon world and met up with Hiei there.

It was strange that she had never mentioned it before, he thought. It was also strange that she had been sighted by a human and that the bandits Hiei had been raised by had also seen her, since she was usually invisible to any living creature, human or demon, unless she was in her human body. But he thought that she had only been granted the ability to take a human body in recent years to help her assist Yusuke in his duties to spirit world. How then had she come to have a human form 99 years ago?

Hiei narrowed his eyes. That group of five demons who had been searching for the time travel device had said that they had learned about it from the woman who had kidnapped him. Did that mean that Botan had told them about it? It was true that she was a blabbermouth with a tendency for saying inappropriate things to inappropriate people, but surely even she had the sense not to talk to a band of thugs about something so valuable.

Hiei's eyes widened again as another disturbing thought occurred to him. He had bitten that woman who had kidnapped him. He could specifically remember biting her face. Botan had been covered with bite-marks when he – along with Yusuke and Kurama – had found her in demon world near the end of their mission to find the time travel device. When they had found her in demon world falling out of the sky in the region of the ice village. With a hood covering her head. And a bite-mark on her face.

A series of unusual coincidences, or something else entirely?

* * *

"Lady Mukuro!"

Mukuro's face dropped as her eyes landed on that girl again. Somehow she had known that the day that girl had come to her fortress looking for Hiei it would not honestly be the last time that she ever saw her: and, unsurprisingly, she had seen the girl twice more since, the first time earlier that day when she had arrived at the site of the B division fights and now again in the hospital where injured participants of the tournament were being treated. Apparently the girl lacked good sense, since she seemed to be still running around after Hiei despite Mukuro's advice that she desist her futile cause.

"I saw your fight today!" the girl said cheerfully. "You did just splendidly! Congratulations on advancing to the next round!"

Mukuro gave her a tight smile.

"My opponent surrendered after one punch," she said flatly. "I didn't even put any force behind it."

"And it was very impressive!" the girl replied.

Mukuro slowly eyed her over. She looked awful, but she was still smiling as radiantly as ever. Maybe that was why she persevered in her pursuit of Hiei: no matter how tough it got for her, she was still able to smile. Was she infinitely stupid, happy because she could not truly understand that she was being made a fool of, or was she the most intelligent creature ever to have lived, happy because she understood something so few others did: that true happiness comes from within and optimism does bring joy?

"She's with me," a voice said quietly.

Mukuro turned her head slightly, seeing Kurama, one of Hiei's trusted friends and his opponent from earlier that day. He had been taken to hospital at the end of the events for the day, and he looked as though he ought to still be resting somewhere.

"Excuse us," he added, putting an arm around the girl's shoulders and guiding her around Mukuro.

"It was lovely to see you again!" the girl called back to her. "Be sure to take good care of Hiei!"

Mukuro sighed and shook her head before walking on. Behind her she heard one of her men tell the others that the girl they had just met was that same crazy lush who had somehow made it past security to get to Hiei after his near-loss in the preliminary round of the tournament. Mukuro let them vent their complaints, focussing her attention on finding Hiei. She planned to take him back to he fortress and dump him into a healing chamber for a day or so, knowing that she would not manage to keep him there much longer than that since he both despised the idea of being kept in such a device and that he would be keen to go back and watch the rest of the tournament, especially since his friends Yusuke and Kurama had qualified for the next round.

When Mukuro eventually sighted Hiei, she saw two things she had not expected to, and neither pleased her. First of all, he was awake despite looking like he ought not to be, and secondly his face was visibly flinching between a variety of expressions as though he was thinking deeply about something. As she neared him he looked directly at her several times before recognition dawned on his face and his expression neutralised. She started to greet him but he cut her off with a question that worried her more than finding him awake and confused had.

"Where's Botan?"

Mukuro slowed to a halt at Hiei's bedside, taking a deep breath and slowly sighing out the air again before answering her subordinate.

"She just left," she said tightly.

"I need to talk to her," he replied.

"With Kurama."

"I… What?"

"I passed her in the halls. She was with Kurama. He had his arm around her."

One of Hiei's eyes twitched slightly.

"Don't you think it's better that way, Hiei?" Mukuro asked. "She was a gentle and peaceful human girl. A ruthless and violent demon like you could not have tolerated that for long."

Hiei closed his eyes and an ironic smile graced his lips.

"Botan understands my predicament," he said quietly "I find her pleasant outlook very calming and welcome."

Mukuro tilted her head slightly, her first thought being that Hiei had not sounded like himself, and she wondered if those were his own words. He started to laugh, but it was a dry, pained and forced sound.

"Hiei?" she said, hoping to bring him back to his senses.

"That was what Kurama said," he said, his voice still quiet, as though he was more thinking aloud than talking to her.

"I came to take you home," Mukuro said.

He opened his eyes and turned his head to look directly at her, his face becoming serious.

"Yes, you're right," he concluded. "It is better this way. Take me home."

* * *

"Come on, Botan, move it!"

Botan pouted at Kuwabara, but he did not notice.

"Get your oar, and let's go!" he added.

Botan turned from him, facing Yusuke, Kurama and Koenma.

"Good luck," Koenma offered her.

"Yeah," Yusuke agreed. "Don't film it. And if you do, I don't want to see it."

"As if I'd let you see a film of my Yukina… Like that!" Kuwabara yelled at him.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Kurama said. "If you do encounter any problems, be sure to let us know, won't you?"

Botan nodded, understanding his meaning only too well: if Yukina gave birth to twins, they would need to hurriedly make plans for dealing with Hiei's inevitably violent reaction.

"Um…" she began glancing back and forth between Yusuke and Koenma. "Can I have a minute alone with Kurama please?"

"Oh yeah?" Yusuke asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "Gone off short dark and loathsome, have you?"

Botan gave him a withering look but he merely grinned back at her before walking away, pushing Koenma ahead of himself. She waited until they had joined George at the entrance to the hotel before checking over her shoulder that Kuwabara was still some distance away. She then moved closer to Kurama and smiled sweetly.

"I may have been at your apartment last night," she began.

"Yes, I thought as much," he flatly replied.

"And I may have caused some damage…" she said slowly. "Hana might be dead and I might have broken one of your light-emitting flowers… And left them both in your living room…"

Kurama nodded.

"That's alright," he said. "I can grow replacements for both."

"Really?" Botan asked, smiling brightly.

"Yes, I kept a few of the female seeds Hana produced, just in case I ever had a need for them again," he replied. "And I can grow another light-emitting flower within a day. I'll be returning to my apartment tomorrow night. I need to rest here for now."

"Oh goody, because there is one more thing."

"I thought there might be."

"I left something in your apartment."

"…Yes?"

"Something very important to me. Can you please bring it back to demon world with you? I'll be back for the next round of the tournament, I'll collect it then."

"Of course. But you will have to tell me what it is, Botan."

"You don't already know?"

"I'm not psychic, Botan."

"But you usually always know everything!"

"Hurry up, Botan!" Kuwabara yelled.

Botan rolled her eyes.

"It's my portrait," she explained. "Rui – Yukina's friend from the ice village – drew a picture of me, and I really love it, it's very important to me, and I accidentally left it at your apartment last night. I think it might be on or near the television."

"Alright, I'll bring it back for you," Kurama agreed. "But for now I think you should go, and not just because of Kuwabara's impatience. Unless I'm very much mistaken, I expect Yukina to give birth before the next round of the tournament. I will be in the living world from tomorrow night, don't hesitate to contact me if… Well, I'm sure you understand."

Botan nodded and bid him goodbye, waving at Yusuke, Koenma and George before summoning her oar and hurrying over to join Kuwabara.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," she muttered as she hopped onto her oar.

"What did you just say about fire?" Kuwabara asked, jumping on behind her, her oar dipping slightly as his weight jarred against her powers holding it afloat.

Botan smiled dryly, silently thinking that her turn of phrase had been oddly relevant: after all, she was not only moving away from one dramatic event to another but she might also literally be going into a fire of sorts if Yukina did give birth to twins.

"Kuwabara?" she said as she took them up into the air. "Do you know what an emiko is?"

"Yeah, Yukina's brother's an emiko," he replied. "It's just another name for a fire demon, right?"

"Mostly, yes," Botan agreed. "Do you understand how an ice maiden would ever come to give birth to an emiko?"

"…Are you asking me if I understand the birds and the bees, Botan?" he asked.

"Not exactly…"

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan prepares the others for the possibility of an emiko and Yukina's big day arrives, leaving everyone present in shock for more reason than one. **Chapter 38: The Saving Grace**


	38. The Saving Grace

**Recap:** Kuwabara confronted Hiei about not finding Yukina's brother(!) and Botan bumped into one of the bandits she met in the past during her time travel experience, leaving Hiei with a lot of unanswered questions.

* * *

 **Chapter 38: The Saving Grace**

Botan cleared her throat awkwardly. She had been sitting on the roof of Genkai's temple for a considerable length of time – night had fallen already – and most of that time had been spent in silence. She was starting to grow impatient, but she understood the importance of impressing her point on Kuwabara before going inside, and so she continued to wait for him to acknowledge what she had told him.

"Are you trying to tell me…" he eventually said. "That Yukina… That I might have…?"

Botan suppressed a sigh and forced a smile.

"Yes," she said.

Although he had not ended any of his sentences she already knew what he had been trying to ask: was she telling him that Yukina might have twins, that Yukina might give birth to a violent fire demon child and that Kuwabara might be the father of it.

"Though, as I said already, nobody really knows how this might turn out, exactly," she added carefully. "Because, as far as we are aware, no ice maiden has ever… Conceived with a human before."

"What do you mean "we"?" Kuwabara asked. "Did you tell Rui about this?"

"No," Botan said, shaking her head. "I didn't want to worry her."

Kuwabara's face darkened and Botan suddenly realised her mistake.

"Not that you and Yukina having a child together should be a worry for anyone!" she hurriedly added.

"But it is, if what you're saying is true," he replied. "I can't ever have a child with Yukina, because if I do, it will be born a fire-breathing monster! And… Eww, will it look like Hiei too?"

Botan pulled a disgruntled kitty face at Kuwabara and growled at him like a cat, but he appeared not to notice, his face instead slowly changing as though a sense of realisation was dawning in his mind.

"Oh my God!" he hissed. "Hiei! I get it now!"

"Oh hallelujah!" she brightened.

"Hiei is a violent fire demon with red eyes and a crappy childhood!" Kuwabara continued, waving a finger at Botan. "It all makes so much sense now! Hiei is an emiko!"

"Yes!" Botan said. "Oh goodness, I'm so relieved that you figured it out for yourself at long last! I can't wait to tell Yusuke. He had you pegged for being quite the silly billy for not understanding this before!"

"Hiei was born in the ice village, and they cast him out, and that's why he's such a nasty little short man!"

"Hiei's not a short man…"

"What? Yes he is! The top of his head is like the same height as your armpit!"

"…Oh well, I suppose he's not very tall, but I certainly wouldn't ever describe him as a short man…"

"What the hell are you talking about, Botan?"

Botan grinned nervously as she felt her face start to grow hot. She gave her head a small shake, hoping to literally shake her thoughts into order: she was trying to explain to Kuwabara that Yukina might give birth to an emiko and how they should cope with that, it was not an appropriate time for her to be thinking about parts of Hiei's anatomy that she had no right to know about and Kuwabara was highly unlikely to want to hear anything about.

"So now you understand that Hiei is an emiko?" she said, hoping to bring the conversation back on track.

"Yeah!" Kuwabara agreed, his expression gaining focus again. "I guess that's why he knew where the ice village was too. I wonder why he never told Yukina…"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Botan asked. "He was protecting her."

"Nah, that's not it," Kuwabara said, waving a hand at her dismissively. "He probably didn't want her to know what he really is."

"…That was the point I was trying to make…"

"Damn it, that just makes it worse!"

"Yes, I know. You see why Hiei was so upset when he found out that Yukina was pregnant. He was worried that you had… And that she might give birth to a child as violent as he was."

"If Hiei's an emiko, and he was born in the ice village, and he has that jagan eye that can find anything or anyone, what excuse can he possibly have for not knowing Yukina's brother?"

Botan moaned and fell over, sliding slightly against the sloped roof. Frankly, she was so overwhelmed by Kuwabara's denial, she did not even care if she did slide off the roof completely and fall to the ground below: maybe being comatose would make dealing with the situation far easier.

"Kuwabara…" she began, crawling back up the roof towards him. "Maybe…"

As she sat opposite Kuwabara once more, Botan started to think that she should stop trying to correct him. After all, she had always believed that it was up to Hiei who he told about his relationship with Yukina, and he had never opted to tell Kuwabara before. And she was sure that Yukina had figured out what Rui's drawings really meant, and eventually she would understand Kuwabara's confusion and correct him: Botan just hoped that she was there to witness it when it happened. She smiled at the thought of Yukina innocently telling the love-struck Kuwabara that her twin brother was actually that dark and moody fire demon who hated him so much.

"What are you smirking about?" Kuwabara asked her suspiciously. "I still don't get why you like Hiei so much, you know."

"…Never mind about that now," Botan replied, suppressing her smile. "Do you understand what I've been trying to tell you about Yukina and the possibility of her giving birth to an emiko?"

"I'm not stupid, Botan!" he grumbled.

"Just stupid with denial…"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Botan smiled sweetly and patted Kuwabara's arm.

"So you understand that if the birth goes horribly wrong, you will have to get Shizuru and Keiko out of the temple," she said.

"Right, I'll tell them to go outside," he replied.

"No," Botan replied, shaking her head. "If there is a fire demon, you will have to put the girls into your car and drive them away from here. You understand that this child will be extremely powerful."

"But it'll just be a newborn baby!"

"That doesn't matter. He will be born with the same power level as a mid-level A-class demon."

"What?!"

"I don't know how deadly he will be, because he won't have any knowledge about how to actually use his attacks effectively, but even if he just threw a few random energy blasts he could easily bring this whole temple down…"

Botan frowned slightly as she noticed that Kuwabara was staring at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Very dangerous," she said again. "It's a jolly good thing that you've got me here to keep you right on track!"

"That's so not reassuring…"

"Come along, let's go and have a nice cup of cocoa and catch up with our friends!"

Kuwabara quirked an eyebrow at Botan sceptically – she suspected that he was a little bit frightened and had been deliberately stalling their conversation in the hope of delaying the inevitable – but she ignored his concerned, rising to her feet and holding out her hands towards him. He grabbed onto her hands and did little to help her as she dragged him to his feet, almost pulling a muscle in her back as she did so. She knew that he had not done it deliberately – Kuwabara was nothing if not chivalrous – but she glared at him regardless before leaping off the roof and easing herself to the ground on her oar. He could find his own way down, she decided, as punishment for letting her hurt her back.

Botan felt quite pleased with herself – all things considered – and she was really looking forward to just having a cup of cocoa and catching up with Shizuru, Keiko and Yukina. And after Yukina, Keiko and Kuwabara had gone to bed, she would probably stay up a little later with Shizuru and enjoy a couple of more grown up drinks and a few rounds of poker.

"Ah! Shizuru!" Botan yelped, her mind suddenly snapping back into stress mode as she realised that Shizuru was sitting on the temple steps directly below the section of roof Botan had been sat on with Kuwabara. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Long enough to get some closure," Shizuru replied with a wry smile. "When my brother left this place in a blind rage last night I thought he was mad because Hiei is Yukina's brother. It didn't make sense that he would react that way, and now I see why…"

She sighed before rising to her feet.

"It's been pretty hectic around here, but I'm guessing it's all nothing compared to what's been going on in demon world, right?" she said.

Botan started to answer her but was cut off by Kuwabara landing heavily and a little awkwardly beside her.

"Hey sis," he said, nodding to Shizuru.

"Hey baby bro," she replied. "You're still alive, so I'm guessing that you didn't get a chance to go near Hiei. And by the looks of the busted lip Botan must have been trying to smack some sense into you."

"You're so funny," Kuwabara drawled, rolling his eyes. "Where's Yukina?"

"Asleep," Shizuru flatly replied. "She saw the two of you coming back and started laying out refreshments for you, but after half an hour we all got bored waiting for you to come in, so we ate and drank everything ourselves and then Yukina and Keiko went to bed. I was about to head off myself, I only came out for a smoke."

As though to illustrate her point Shizuru took one last drag on her cigarette before dropping it and stamping it into the grass.

"I'm going to bed, I've had a really hectic twenty-four hours…" Kuwabara grumbled, marching inside.

Botan resisted the urge to tell him that his last twenty-four hours had nothing on hers in terms of being hectic, instead just watching him disappear before turning to smile at Shizuru.

"I guess it's just you and me," Shizuru said to her, returning her smile. "How about we have something a little stronger than cocoa and you can tell me what our three favourite demons have been up to lately."

* * *

Mukuro awoke abruptly, her face twisted into a sneer. Whatever had just made that noise was going to die. By the sounds of it, something – or perhaps even someone – had just blown up an entire wing of her fortress, and as she soon as she found the guilty party, she intended to make him or her suffer suitably.

She rose from her bed, grumbling a few choice curses as she tugged on a robe and tied it lazily around her waist, stepping into a pair of boots. She pushed her hair back from her face and shook herself off before marching briskly from her room. She did not have to walk far before she started encountering some of her foot soldiers – the weaker, A class demons – running around in the halls. They were all heading in the general direction of the disturbance, and as she heard their frantic rants echoing around her she found that her initial suspicions about the origin of the explosion had been correct: and so she started to jog, heading in the direction of the medical wing.

By the time she had reached the corridor leading to the room the healing chambers resided in, Mukuro could see the concentration of the chaos around a section of rubble that had once been a wall. She could hear voices arguing, but, much to her disappointment, most of them were arguing over which of them should be made to enter the room the disturbance had come from. Unfortunately, almost half of Mukuro's top warriors were not present, either because they were staying in the hotel by the tournament arena or because they were in healing chambers themselves, and the soldiers that remained at the fortress were no match for the individual who had caused the explosion – not even if they all combined their powers and attacked at once.

"Out of the way," Mukuro said, shouldering her way through the throngs of bodies until she saw two demons from her elite 77. "What happened?" she asked them. "I thought we secured him in there."

Mukuro moved further into the room, unsurprised to see Hiei glowering across the room at them from amongst the crumbled remains of a healing chamber he had apparently blasted his way out of in a fit of rage. He was still naked and dripping wet, crouched amongst the rubble, and although he had not moved from the location of his healing chamber, he had somehow managed to acquire a sword – though clearly the weapon was not his own, and so presumably he had taken it by force from the first soldier unfortunate enough to try to contain him.

"The medics say he was thrashing about a lot," one of Mukuro's top soldiers at her side told her. "They said it just happened suddenly. One minute he was fine, the next he was trying to get out. He tried to open the unit from the inside and then suddenly he just erupted and blew out the whole chamber… And about four or five others around him… And the wall…"

"Get me a sedative," Mukuro flatly replied. "And make sure it's a strong one."

The soldier looked a little reluctant to follow her order but she ignored him, walking further into the room towards Hiei.

"You're meant to be resting, you fool," she told him.

"I'm leaving," he replied, before wiping a hand down his face to clear the excess liquid still dripping from his hair. "And don't bother trying to stop me."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, coming to a stop in front of him.

"I'm going to the living world, of course!" he replied.

"I didn't ask where you were going. I already know where you think you're going. I asked what do you intend to do once you get there?"

"…Not your concern."

"Didn't you learn a little something yesterday about rushing into things without planning them out a beforehand?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes dangerously at her but Mukuro was beyond caring as she had just been handed the syringe she had requested.

"If you won't stay here by choice, you'll stay here by force," she said.

Hiei's eyes moved to the syringe and widened slightly. He swung the sword at the syringe but Mukuro was easily able to keep it out of his range, stabbing it forwards into his shoulder as he completed his swing.

"You bitch!" he snarled at her. "You can't keep me here like I'm your property!"

Mukuro passed the empty syringe back to the soldier behind her, holding her other hand out in a halting signal as Hiei started to try to stand up.

"Don't bother," she advised him. "You'll be out before you can even take one step."

He growled at her but the sound was weak as his eyelids began to droop. Mukuro signalled for the medics to return to the room, which they did reluctantly, none of them daring to approach Hiei until he was lying completely unconscious against the floor.

"Was that necessary?" the soldier at Mukuro's side asked.

"Yes," she flatly replied. "And make sure that you secure him in there this time!" she yelled over to the medics who were carrying Hiei towards another healing chamber.

"Judging by the amount of power he used to blast out of there, he was about back to full strength already," the soldier pointed out.

"There's no real need for him to stay in there any longer in terms of his need to heal or recuperate his strength," Mukuro replied. "I just need him to stay in there so that he doesn't do something stupid. There's only one thing that could make him blow up like that, and it's not something he needs to get involved in right now."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Obviously his twin sister just went into labour."

* * *

Botan groaned, pushing off the sheet covering her and turning to lie on her back. Her actions made her fall suddenly, her head and shoulders hitting the ground with a thump that proved to be a rude awakening from an otherwise surprisingly peaceful slumber.

"Botan, are you alright?"

Botan opened her eyes and looked up to see Yukina knelt at her side. A quick glance about herself told her that she was still in the living room of the temple, on the floor next to the couch she had been sat on the night before.

"Yukina…" she muttered, sitting up with a slight wince. "Goodness, did I sleep here all night?"

"You dropped off while I was in the kitchen getting us a drink," Shizuru answered her. "You looked really relaxed, it seemed a shame to disturb you. I was going to ask my brother to carry you to a bed, but he was already asleep too, and… He forgot to cover himself up…"

Shizuru's face twisted slightly before she managed a smile. Botan turned to Yukina, eying her over curiously before looking about the room. There was no sign of Keiko or Kuwabara, so Botan decided to take advantage of the opportunity of neither being present.

"I didn't know what was in Rui's letter," she said, turning back to Yukina. "If I had known, I would have kept it from you until after the baby came. I don't think you needed all that stress. Especially Kuwabara flying off the handle and not understanding…"

"Oh no, but I'm really happy that I read Rui's letter!" Yukina replied, smiling sweetly. "I was so pleased to find out the truth about my brother."

Botan narrowed her eyes slightly.

"…Yes, about that…" she began slowly.

"Everything makes so much more sense to me now," Yukina continued. "I always thought Mister Hiei wasn't quite so abrupt with me as he was with everyone else, but now I know why! He must have known that I was his sister all this time!"

Botan swallowed slowly, moving her eyes to Shizuru, who shrugged.

"Have you spoken to Kuwabara since he got back from demon world?" she asked, moving her eyes back to Yukina.

"Yes," she replied, her smile fading. "I told him not to get angry any more because I'm happy."

"…Okay… And he understands the situation now?"

Yukina frowned and tilted her head slightly. Botan glanced at Shizuru again, who pulled an odd face back at her before producing a packet of cigarettes and leaving the room.

"I'm really glad that you're here, Botan," Yukina said.

"Oh yes, me too!" Botan agreed, meeting her eyes with a smile.

"I thought you might be late because of my brother," Yukina added.

"Oh could you sense that he lost his fight?" Botan asked.

"No, Kazuma told me about it."

"…Right…"

"I did feel a strange sadness last night though. I'm really sorry that he didn't go any further in the tournament, but at least he lost to a worthy opponent."

"Yes, that's the spirit!"

"Are you hungry? I made breakfast!"

Botan paused, her eyes lowering to Yukina's stomach and lingering there for several seconds.

"Aren't you sweet?" she said. "But you really shouldn't be fussing after me."

"It's no bother!" Yukina replied.

"Oh well, alrighty then!"

Botan got to her feet and stretched her arms above her head, feeling a slight pain in her neck, presumably from sleeping in such a ridiculous position. She could not remember falling asleep the night before, but she had been through so much in the last few days she was not entirely surprised that exhaustion had simply taken her over. She made a mental note to apologise to Shizuru later for falling asleep on her, since that had been quite a rude thing to do to such a good friend.

"Here we are!" Yukina said as they reached the dining room.

"This is delicious, my love!" Kuwabara said, grinning up at them from his position next by a small serving table.

"…I made that for Botan…" Yukina said quietly.

"Oh…" Kuwabara said, swallowing the contents of his mouth and lowering the handfuls of food he had been about to devour.

"It's Botan's favourite…" Yukina said, her voice still very quiet.

"Well you shouldn't be running around after Botan," Kuwabara recovered, before continuing to eat. "Make your own breakfast, Botan!" he added through a mouthful of food, glaring at Botan as he spoke.

"Yes, I think I will," she dryly replied, wiping a few stray pieces of sticky rice from her sleeve where Kuwabara had spat at her. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine now," Kuwabara answered her.

"I was talking to Yukina!" Botan snapped at him.

"…I wanted…" Yukina started.

"What is it sweetie?" Botan asked gently, turning back to her. "I'll make you anything you want!"

"…Hold my hand…" she answered, her head dipping down, her hair falling over her features and hiding them from Botan's line of sight.

"Okay…" Botan said, taking Yukina's hand in hers. "There we are! Is that better – oh God, Yukina!"

Botan's eyes crossed over and she almost dislocated her shoulder as she tried to wrench her hand free of Yukina's, the cracking sound emanating from her fingers doing little to ease her concerns that the ice maiden was trying to break them.

"…Yukina?" she said in strained voice. "Honey, that's a little too tight…"

Yukina made a growling noise and gripped tighter, and Botan was sure she had just snapped a nerve, as a searing pain shot up her arm to her elbow. She hissed and closed her eyes, too focussed on the pain to even care why it was happening. She opened her eyes again in time to see Kuwabara stand up and approach Yukina.

"Hey baby, are you okay?" he asked her, reaching a hand out towards.

"Don't touch me!"

Kuwabara yelped and leapt back from Yukina, and Botan temporarily forgot about her pain as she realised that the abrasive voice that had just yelled at Kuwabara had come from Yukina's throat.

"…Yukina…?" Kuwabara whimpered.

"Stay away from me!" she snarled back.

Botan leaned forwards, her eyes doubling in size as she saw that Yukina's head was up and facing Kuwabara – and she no longer looked like herself. Her teeth were bared and her eyes were glowing white, and judging by the look on Kuwabara's face, Botan was not the only one who could sense Yukina's demonic energy steadily rising. Botan slowly moved her eyes to her hand that Yukina was squeezing, torn between horror and a sense of realisation as she saw that, from the elbow down, her arm had been encased in a thin layer of ice.

"Kuwabara?" Botan said carefully, turning to the terrified redhead. "Can you be a dear and fetch those things that Rui gave me? You know, the furs and the gloves and the cleats… I think I'm going to need them."

"Why?" he asked, turning to her with a genuinely confused expression.

"Why do you think?" Botan snapped back impatiently. "Stop dallying about and get to it! Right now!"

"You're such a nag, Botan!" he grumbled.

"Do it, Kazuma!" Yukina roared.

Kuwabara mewed fearfully before fleeing from the room. Botan watched him go before turning to Yukina.

"Yukina?" she said. "We need to get you somewhere more comfortable. There's a very nice bedroom just two doors along from this room, how about we–"

"Take me to my bedroom!" Yukina interrupted her.

Botan gulped before slowly shaking her head.

"…Right…" she said carefully. "You mean that room at the top of the stairs? The one in the roof?"

"Yes!" Yukina ground out.

Botan nodded and then shook her head.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said gently. "Unless we wait until Kuwabara gets back, and then he could carry you up there, how about that?"

"Take me up there now!"

Botan whimpered as Yukina turned her glowing eyes towards her.

"Okay," she squeaked out.

Botan was too terrified to argue with Yukina when she was wearing that expression – it was exactly the same look she had seen Hina wear 99 years ago right before she had turned a troll into a solid block of ice. Although Botan doubted that Yukina was in any way malicious, she certainly seemed to be a little irrational at present, and the damage she had already done to Botan's arm was warning enough.

Botan silently wondered if, after the birth had passed, Yukina might want to learn to control that power and join the spirit detective team. She certainly had the potential to be strong, and she was definitely more reliable and contactable than Hiei.

"Do you think you can walk?" Botan asked carefully.

Yukina said nothing but she started to turn herself around and so Botan hurriedly moved with her, feeling a little redundant to help her as her arm was still frozen and locked into Yukina's vice-like grip. Together they slowly shuffled out of the kitchen and along the hall towards the staircase. Botan tensed as she spotted Keiko and Shizuru running towards them, shaking her head urgently.

"Yukina, are you okay?" Keiko asked, reaching for her as she and Shizuru caught up to them.

"Don't touch me!" Yukina snapped at her.

Keiko recoiled from her in shock but Shizuru took on a knowing look and put an arm around Keiko, holding her back.

"We'll get a basin of hot water," she suggested.

"Right, yeah!" Keiko agreed.

They hurried on towards the kitchen, Shizuru giving Botan's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she passed her back. Botan answered her with a short, nervous laugh before continuing on to the foot of the stairs. Never one to be stumped in a situation, Botan summoned her oar and carefully sat down onto it. She hesitated for several seconds before an idea occurred to her and she lifted her frozen arm over Yukina's head, wrapping their joined arms around Yukina and putting her free arm around Yukina and gently easing her back to sit on her lap.

Yukina was tense and stiff and even just getting her to sit down had been a strain. As soon as she was confident that they were both securely on the oar Botan began to lift them swiftly and steadily up to the floor above, remaining on the oar until she reached the room Yukina wanted to be in. She then took them to the bed and lowered them down as far as she could before dematerialising the oar, leaving herself sitting on the bed with Yukina sitting on her.

"Here we are!" she said cheerfully.

"…You're so determined…" Yukina muttered.

Botan was unsure if Yukina had meant her words as a compliment or an insult, but her voice had almost sounded normal again, so she smiled and decided to take it as a flattering remark.

"I never give up!" she replied brightly. "That's the ferry girl's motto!"

"…It is?"

"…Well, no actually, it's just the Botan motto…"

Yukina cried out and Botan felt her entire body jerk against her, confirming that it really was time for her to give birth. Botan quickly shuffled herself out from under Yukina, easing her down to lie on her back as best she could whilst still attached to her arm.

"Yukina, could you maybe let go of my hand?" she asked.

Yukina growled and gripped tighter, and Botan felt the temperature of the air around her drop dramatically.

"Oh dear…" she whispered weakly.

"Hey, we brought some hot water and towels!" Keiko called to her from the doorway.

"Bring it over here, quickly!" Botan said to her.

Keiko anxiously crept into the room, keeping her eyes on Yukina the whole time. As soon as she was within arm's reach, Botan grabbed the basin from Keiko's hands and tipped it over her frozen arm, sighing in relief as it melted the ice sufficiently for her to pull her hand from Yukina's. Keiko said something about her wasting things and making a mess but Botan ignored her, shaking out her arm experimentally. She had lost all feeling in her arm from the elbow down and parts of her skin were still glistening with patches of ice: and the rapidly dropping temperature around them was starting to make the wetness of her arm turn to frost.

"Another basin," she said to Keiko. "Quickly!"

Keiko looked a little indignant but took the basin and left the room. Botan grabbed up one of the towels she had left and quickly dried off her arm. She was almost glad that everything was happening so suddenly because it was quickly going badly, and the idea that it might get a lot worse before the morning was over barely lingered in her mind as she tried to catch up with what was going on. She took a step back towards Yukina's side and promptly found herself lying flat on her back and looking up at the ceiling.

"…Ow…" she muttered, grabbing at the leg of the bed and pulling herself up again.

The water she had poured over her arm to thaw it had landed in a puddle on the polished wooden floor and promptly turned to ice. An idea occurred to Botan that, despite Rui having kindly warned her and prepared her with all the right equipment for this event, she was making all the mistakes she ought to be avoiding anyway.

"Heads up, Botan!"

Botan started to respond to the sound of Shizuru's voice behind her but her words were cut off as the furs from the ice village fell over her and she heard the bedroom door sliding harshly shut. Her initial thought was that it had been very rude of Shizuru to throw those things at her – especially the cleats, since they could have taken half of her face off – and it was rude of her to have slammed the door like that: but as Yukina let out a cry of pain that turned into a snarling, animalistic sound and the entire room became bitterly cold, Botan decided to forgive Shizuru's abruptness.

She hurriedly arranged the furs about her shoulders and attached the cleats to her shoes before pulling on the long rubber gloves and moving to stand up: at which point she realised that she was frozen to the floor. Out of desperation she concentrated her own spirit energy into her legs. She lacked the ability to fight off the ice, which was laced with demon energy, but she could at least make her body hotter and hopefully defrost enough of it to free herself.

"Botan!" Yukina cried out.

Botan struggled harder, finally freeing herself and rising to her feet. She was immediately glad for the spikes on the soles of her shoes as they gripped perfectly into the ice and allowed her to move around with relative ease. The furs made the cold tolerable and she supposed the gloves would stop Yukina from freezing her hands again when she touched her.

Botan silently wondered if the gloves were also fireproof.

"Botan!" Yukina screamed.

Botan snapped back to attention, moving around to the end of the bed.

"Okay, just concentrate on breathing," she said.

Yukina gave her a slightly sceptical, slightly homicidal, look and Botan grinned nervously.

"Breathing and pushing, sweetie," she said. "That's all you have to think about."

"Breathing and pushing and pain!" Yukina snarled back at her.

"…Okay…"

"It hurts!"

"I know, but you have to just try to push for just a little while."

"How could you possibly know?"

"…Good point, but let's just try to focus on the breathing and the pushing…"

"I can't!"

Botan mewed and cowered back as the slanted window in the roof cracked. Looking up at it she could see that it had been suddenly frozen from the inside, which, against the warm late spring sun shining down on it from the outside had caused the glass to crack from the sudden shift in temperature. She looked down at Yukina, seeing her face twisted in pain and coated in sweat, the only coherent thought in her mind being that if Yukina was suffering this badly at the start of the birth of her first child, how would she manage to birth two?

Botan then remembered that, apparently, Hina had given birth to Hiei first – perhaps Yukina's current pain was because she was giving birth to a violent fire demon. Rui had said that Hina only survived giving birth to Hiei because she had frozen her own body, which had given her enough protection from his flames to stop them from burning her alive. Looking down at Yukina, Botan could see that, despite the fact that she successfully frozen the bed and most of the room, Yukina had not actually frozen any part of herself.

If she gave birth to a fire demon now, she would die.

"Yukina!" Botan wailed, crawling onto the foot of the bed.

Acting on instinct, Botan grabbed onto Yukina's ankles and started transferring her healing energy into the ice maiden.

* * *

Mukuro stopped, barely able to believe what she was sensing. She turned her head to look back over her shoulder for visual confirmation, unsure if she was angry or just amazed to see that Hiei was still twitching restlessly in his healing chamber, despite being under the influence of a heavy sedative. She was not about to let him go running off: she knew that he could not go near his sister's baby, but she did worry about what he might to do anyone else who did, and no demon was above being sentenced severely for murdering a human unnecessarily, not even Hiei.

She started back across the room towards him but stopped short as his jagan suddenly opened wide, glowing brilliantly. He still appeared to be unconscious, but apparently even in that state he was trying to reach out to his sister. It was tempting to "listen in" on what he was trying to communicate or do – it was not as though he had any secrets from her anyway – but she decided that this was one battle Hiei was going to have to fight on his own. He had yet to completely let go of his past, to heal the scars he had been left with, and those were things he could only do himself and in his own time.

Sometimes though, it got infuriating waiting for him to see sense.

* * *

Botan twitched as she felt an eyelash rip out of her upper eyelid. She realised then that she was crying, her tears freezing along her eyelids and trapping her eyelashes. She could not decide if she was crying in relief, joy or just simply because she was overwhelmed by the little miracle in her arms.

"It's a girl!" she eventually managed to say.

Yukina said something back, but her words were incoherent. Botan carefully moved off of the bed, moving towards the basin of water Shizuru had slid into the room earlier to clean the baby. She felt light-headed as she moved – was that shock, exhaustion or just over-exertion of her spirit energy? The baby in her arms was moaning quietly and squinting up at her curiously, but there was no mistaking that it was a girl, with big red eyes and a covering of hair that was the same colour as Yukina's. Botan silently thanked King Enma that the child was female and perfect as she began carefully washing the girl down.

"…Botan…" Yukina mumbled.

"It's okay," Botan assured her. "She's perfect, Yukina!"

Botan sighed, realising then that she was also shaking all over. It was still bitterly cold in the room and she was sweating and worn out and still on a high of fear and excitement, so she supposed that it was only natural that she should be shivering so badly. Once she was finished cleaning the baby she wrapped her in a blanket and handed her to Yukina, who still looked pained. She took her baby into her arms, but her head fell down and she tensed.

"Botan…" she groaned.

"…Oh God…" Botan muttered under her breath. "…It's not over yet, is it…?"

Yukina moaned out another indecipherable reply and Botan crept to the end of the bed again, cautiously pinching at the hem of Yukina's kimono and lifting it up to look underneath.

"…Botan, what are you doing?" Yukina asked her, sounding alarmingly like her brother as she adopted a flat, unimpressed tone.

Botan lowered her hand slightly to look over it at Yukina's face, tensing as she saw that Yukina's brow was flat and her eyes thinned, making her also look remarkably like her brother.

"…I was checking for the emiko…" she said.

Yukina's eyes grew large and her eyebrows rose up her forehead, disappearing into her hair.

"Botan, I wasn't expecting twins," she said quietly.

"Well maybe you weren't expecting them," Botan began, still holding up the hem of Yukina's kimono. "But that's how it starts, you see. You think you're safe and then suddenly there's an unexpected pregnancy."

Botan dipped her head down again, peering under Yukina's kimono.

"Botan, seriously," Yukina said, her voice a little firmer. "I'm not stupid. I didn't let Kazuma touch me until I was sure that I was pregnant. I knew that during my natural pregnancy I couldn't possibly get pregnant again until after I gave birth, so I… Well, I'm sure you understand."

Botan slowly lowered Yukina's kimono, finding the ice maiden smiling softly down at her.

"I thought that…" Botan began, pointing a gloved finger at the baby in Yukina's arms.

Yukina shook her head.

"The only sad thing now is that I can't share a physical relationship with Kazuma any more unless we're very careful," she said. "Otherwise I will give birth to an emiko."

Botan nodded, though she felt that she was missing something somewhere.

"It's not that I wouldn't love a son," Yukina said quietly. "It's just that I'm not sure how my brother would handle it."

"Oh well…" Botan began.

The old Botan would have said screw Hiei – he had chosen not to be a part of Yukina's life, and she only now knew of her relation to him by accident – but now she found herself feeling a great sadness instead. She looked down at the gurgling baby cradled in Yukina's arms and all she could think was that it was incredibly sad that the girl would probably never know her uncle, even though he was arguably one of the most honourable souls Botan had ever known. He had overcome so much, and, over the years she had known him, Botan had seen subtle changes in him, slight softening to the hard edges of his personality.

"Oh Botan, I'm so glad you were here with me!" Yukina said suddenly. "You're such a good friend to me, I never thought I would find someone as kind and caring as Rui, I'm so glad I found you!"

Botan smiled, though her eyes did not participate in the sentiment. She was crying again, and presumably Yukina thought that it was with joy over the birth of the baby – but unfortunately it was something far more selfish.

"I'm glad you're alright," she said, hoping to bring her mind back to present matters. "You look exhausted though!"

Botan touched a hand to Yukina's sweating brow.

"Have you thought of a name for the baby?" she asked.

"Yes," Yukina replied. "I'm going to call her Megumi."

"Oh how lovely!" Botan said.

She crouched down at Yukina's bedside and reached a finger out towards one of Megumi's hands, regretting her actions as the baby grabbed a fist around her finger and froze it in the blink of an eye, before releasing it and laughing at the horrified look on Botan's face.

"Oh Botan!" Yukina gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"No problem!" Botan lied, wrapping her finger into the hem of the furs she was still wearing.

"Oh, and your arm!" Yukina added. "Is it alright? I was so overcome with everything I… I forgot myself! It was so odd, one moment I felt alright and the next I was just furious!"

"It's alright," Botan insisted.

"Can you heal your arm? You must have frost-burn and frostbite!"

"…I'll heal it later… I don't have enough energy left right now… I gave most of it to you to ease your pain."

"Oh Botan, I'm too tired to heal you!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine!"

Botan hoped that her words sounded more convincing to Yukina than they did to her own ears: she still could not feel the ends of the fingers on her left hand.

"I'm just glad that you didn't have twins," Botan added. "Oh, not that it would be bad if you ever had a son, just that, as I'm sure you already appreciate yourself, Hiei would probably kill Kuwabara… And that would be just tragic because Kuwabara would be dead, and also because Hiei would be too, because Yusuke and I would have to arrest him and take him to spirit world prison, where he would be sentenced to death for killing a human…"

Botan caught Yukina staring at her with fearful eyes and she realised her mistake.

"Oopsie!" she said, clapping her hands over her mouth. "But that won't happen, so please don't worry! Please forget that I said that!"

Yukina nodded.

"Thank you for everything, Botan," she said.

Botan smiled at her before noticing that there was something resting on the bed at her side. She reached down and picked it up, smiling again as she realised that it was a hiruiseki. She pushed it into one of Yukina's hands.

"Keep that safe!" she reminded her.

"Of course!" Yukina replied.

"Hey, can I come in?" Kuwabara called to them through the door.

"No!" Botan called back.

Yukina gasped at her response but Botan smiled, touching a finger to her lips.

"…But everything's so quiet, is everything okay?" he asked.

Botan rolled her eyes and Yukina giggled.

"Come on in, you big silly!" Botan called to him.

Botan got to her feet and moved towards the door, holding out her arms to catch Kuwabara as he slid open the door and tried to run in, slipping on the ice and colliding with Botan, almost taking her completely off of her feet.

"Come in carefully," she told him as she helped him find his footing.

He nodded at her before sliding his way over to Yukina's side. Botan leaned back against the doorframe to watch Kuwabara put an arm around Yukina and kiss her tenderly on the forehead before he began pulling what were frankly rather frightening faces at the baby, faces that made him look like he ought to have been born in demon world: but apparently Megumi liked his antics as she began giggling. Keiko and Shizuru appeared at Botan's side, Keiko gasping and becoming tearful and Shizuru smiling in an almost proud manner as she watched her brother take hold of the baby.

"Happy families, huh Botan?" she asked as Keiko began trying to make her way over to Yukina's bedside.

Botan nodded, though she silently wondered what role she or Keiko played in the family around them.

"I'm just going to clean up," she said to Shizuru.

"Are you okay?" Shizuru asked her.

"A little tired, a bit drained and a lot cold," Botan replied.

Shizuru smiled at her, patting her on the shoulder.

"You did good," she said.

Botan nodded before moving out into the hallway. She removed her cleats and passed them to Shizuru to use before depositing the furs by the doorway and continuing to the nearest bathroom. She locked herself into the room and removed the rubber gloves, dropping them into the bath and turning the showerhead onto them. She then took the opportunity to study the damage to her left arm. It looked quite bad, she had to admit – in fact, it looked like the sort of injury one of the boys might have sustained during a tournament battle – but she hoped that she would be able to heal it as soon as she regained the energy she had lost helping Yukina.

When her knees began to buckle Botan hurriedly turned off the shower and let herself collapse to her knees, draping her arms over the side of the bath to keep herself as upright as possible. She decided that she would stay that way until the room stopped spinning and then she would go to bed and sleep – sleep was enough for Hiei to recover from using the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, it should be enough for her to get back to full strength.

"Botan."

"Mwhuh?" Botan groaned, her head lowering, her forehead coming to rest against the cool lip of the bath.

"Botan, can you hear me?"

"Yes…" she groaned.

"Thank you."

Botan caught her breath, her eyes slowly widening.

"…Hiei…?"

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei has a message for Botan and he makes a life-changing decision. **Chapter 39: The Sacrifice.**

 **A/N:** Unfortunately I've done it again: Part 1 of this fic ended halfway through a chapter (chapter 17) and so does Part 2 – the next chapter is 50/50 Part 2/Part 3 of this fic. Probably it is better that way though, since the end of Part 2 is a bit angsty (like the end of Part 1 was) and wouldn't be a nice ending to a chapter anyway!

Megumi means grace or blessing.


	39. The Sacrifice

**Recap:** Yukina had her baby, and there was just the one – much relief. Hiei tried to get out of his healing chamber but Mukuro kept him there to stop him doing something stupid.

* * *

 **Chapter 39: The Sacrifice**

Mukuro moved a little closer to the healing chamber Hiei was in. He had stopped twitching about, but the glow from his jagan was almost blinding, and she could not look directly at it. His body was completely still, every limb relaxed and fully extended. His breathing had regulated and he looked oddly at peace. She had not seen him so relaxed since the first time she had put him into a healing chamber following his fight with Shigure – and he had only been so relaxed then because he had been practically dead. Even his face was relaxed and serene. It was almost as though, through his third eye, he had found something that gave him infinite mental peace, the sort of peace of mind he had never been able to find before, the sort of inner peace Mukuro had thought would take him centuries to eventually achieve.

Apparently that Botan girl had managed to reach a part of Hiei that nobody else ever had.

* * *

"Hiei?" Botan said breathlessly, lifting her head and looking about herself expectantly.

"Stop looking for me. I'm still in demon world," she heard his voice say. "I'm talking to you telepathically."

"Oh… Oh of course! Silly me! Stupid ferry girl, right?"

Botan tried to swallow but found her throat too dry to obey. Her eyes, on the other hand, were spilling out tears at an alarming rate despite the fact that she was not actually sobbing.

"Thank you for helping my sister."

Botan gave a small laugh.

"Hiei, you must be sick!" she said. "You don't sound like yourself!"

"I know that she acted strangely and it was difficult for you," he continued. "That was probably partly my fault. I could tell that she was in pain and I lost control. I think when I get that angry it affects Yukina."

"A vicious circle! But really, she was a sweetheart, I was honoured to be there. You should be here too, Hiei. Don't you want to meet your niece?"

Botan looked about herself again, unable to stop herself from doing so, a part of her still somehow expecting Hiei to come through the window or drop down out of a hatch in the roof.

"Hiei?" she pressed when he did not answer her.

"I hurt you," he said.

Botan looked down at her frost-damaged arm.

"You didn't do it deliberately!" she said, smiling to herself.

"I wanted to thank you for all you have done for Yukina and I wanted to assure that I won't ever hurt you again."

Botan started to smile, but the last part of Hiei's sentence made her heart sink.

"Hiei?" she said, a hint or urgency creeping into her voice. "Hiei don't you dare leave! Don't run away again! Hiei?"

Botan pushed herself to her feet, focusing her mind to try to feel for Hiei's presence there.

"Hiei?" she said again. "Hiei!"

She staggered over to the door, unlocking it and shoving it open.

"Hiei!" she yelled out into the hallway.

But, unsurprisingly, he did not answer her call.

* * *

"Open this thing."

Mukuro stopped again, turning once more to look back at Hiei. All three of his eyes were open and the glare of his jagan had faded, and it was now clearly focussed on her.

"Open this thing or I'll blast it apart like I did to the other one," she heard his voice say inside her head.

"Let him out," she called over to a nearby medic.

She started back towards the chamber at a leisurely pace as it was drained and opened. Typical to his impetuous nature, as soon as his hands had been freed Hiei shoved aside the medic trying to help him, tearing off the breathing mask and the remainder of the cords himself. He leapt out of the tank and shook himself off like a dog leaving a river after a swim. He looked about the room before locating his belongings and hurrying over to them. Mukuro joined him as he dressed himself, watching him with folded arms and a flat expression until he eventually looked her way.

"Are you in a hurry?" she asked him.

"Yes," he replied, his tone more than a little sarcastic.

"Going somewhere, then?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, attaching his sword to his hip. "Far away from here, I may be gone some time."

Mukuro nodded.

"I thought you might say as much," she said quietly. "Don't you care what happens in the remainder of the tournament? Don't you care about who the new ruler of demon world will be?"

"As far as I can see, it will be either you, Kurama, Yusuke or Enki again," he flatly replied. "Either way I don't care. It makes no difference to me."

"Well it might," Mukuro said. "If I become the new ruler of demon world, you, as my second-in-command, will hold an enviable position of power too."

"I have no interest in fancy titles, you already know that," he scoffed, pulling on his coat.

"This isn't any old fancy title, Hiei," she tightly reminded him. "This is vice-ruler of demon world. I would make it that you would step into my place if anything should happen to me during my reign."

"Hn, boring."

"And what if Yusuke or Kurama takes the title?"

"I don't care."

"Is what you're running off to do really that important? Is it really so much more important than your future here?"

Hiei finished wrapping his scarf around his neck and gave her an almost condescending smile.

"You know me better than anyone," he said dryly. "My life has always been about facing challenges and pursuing my true purpose. I've done what I needed to here, it's time for me to make this change and move on. I might come back, but probably only to compete in the next tournament – and even then not because I seek to be the new ruler of demon world, just for the challenge of fighting the best of demon world."

Mukuro nodded.

"If you're not back within a year, I'll be replacing you," she told him.

"Do what you must," he replied. "I certainly intend to do what I need to do."

Hiei started to walk away and Mukuro started to smile.

"I never thought a human girl could have such a profound effect on you, Hiei," she called after him.

He stopped but did not look back.

"Hn, she's not a human," he said. "She's a spirit – a ferry girl."

Mukuro's face dropped, but by the time she had recovered from her initial shock Hiei had long gone, denying her the chance to question his sanity. She sighed and shook her head.

"The angel and the jerk," she muttered aloud.

"The immortal and the immoral," one of her long-serving medics suggested.

She turned to him with a smile and together they started to laugh.

"It's not actually funny," she pointed out.

The medic shrugged and they both started laughing again.

* * *

Botan awoke to the feeling of a hand rubbing at her arm. It felt so warm and comforting that at first she kept her eyes closed and smiled, relaxing into the soothing, massaging motion of the fingers against her skin. However as her mind became clearer and awoke more fully she realised two vital things about what she was feeling: first of all it was her left arm, meaning that the feeling had fully returned to it at last, and secondly it felt warm, which meant that her arm must have healed from the frost-burns and frostbite wounds.

She inhaled deeply, and only when she was greeted with the scents of greenery, roses and some sort of medicinal fluid did she realise that she had been expecting to find Hiei at her side. She opened her eyes and the hand halted on her arm. She was greeted with a smile, but the face that wore it was not Hiei's.

"Kurama?" she muttered, feeling even more confused than ever.

"I'm sorry to have woken you, Botan," he whispered. "I was just reapplying some healing herbs to your wounds. You've almost healed completely already."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

His smile shifted into an ironic one.

"It's good to see you too, Botan," he said.

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that!" she quickly corrected herself.

"That's alright," he softly replied. "But keep your voice down, apart from myself and Shizuru the others are all asleep. It's quite late. I've been told that you have been asleep all day. Shizuru found you passed out on the stairs."

Botan frowned, trying to remember how that could have happened. For the first time ever she could actually remember what she had been dreaming about, down to the very last detail, and the memories of her dreams were becoming confused with her memories of the real events of that morning.

"Where's Hiei?" she eventually asked.

She knew that it was not an appropriate question, but after some thought, she had remembered that he had been talking to her telepathically before she had blacked out and her dreams had primarily been about him, and so she was now unable to focus on anything else.

"Mukuro took him back to her fortress to heal him after his fight yesterday, remember?" Kurama reminded her.

Botan felt her throat start to constrict and her chest grow tight. Something did not feel right somehow.

"Where's Yukina?" she asked.

"Asleep," Kurama replied. "Come with me."

He stood up and Botan pushed aside her covers, standing out of her bed at his side. He gave a small smile before leading the way out of the room. Botan followed him through the temple, which was mostly in darkness and almost silent, bar the barely audible muttering of a television on somewhere. Kurama led her up the stairs to the room Yukina usually slept in, stopping by the doorway. He pointed at the slightly open door and Botan moved past him, peeking through into the room beyond. She broke into a grin as she spotted Kuwabara lying on his back, his arms and legs sprawled at his sides, baby Megumi laid asleep on his chest and Yukina cuddled up to one side of him, using one of his arms as a pillow.

"So cute," she mouthed out to Kurama, stepping back from the door.

He nodded and indicated for her to walk ahead of him. She moved on again, touching a hand to her chest and sighing quietly. It was adorable that Kuwabara had been so accepting of Yukina's baby all along and now he was turning into the doting dad he had promised to be – despite the fact that the child was not his own.

"I was so worried there would be two babies," Botan whispered to Kurama as they quietly descended the stairs together.

"Yes, as was I," he replied. "Perhaps being short of stature and having Kuwabara nurse her constantly made Yukina look bigger than she ought to have during her pregnancy."

Botan giggled as her mind again created an image of Kuwabara playing housemaid to Yukina.

"It's so wonderful," she said softly. "Did you come here by chance or did somebody call you?"

"Kuwabara called us all," Kurama replied. "He was quite excited, it's little wonder he's sleeping so soundly now."

"Aw, it's so sweet!"

"Yes. Botan, I do have some bad news, and I know now may not be an appropriate time to mention it, but I think it's best to just come out and tell you."

Botan stopped short, her smile vanishing. She looked up at Kurama with worried eyes, the look on his face doing little to ease her growing apprehension.

"My apartment is not terribly large, as you know, and I searched it high and low for the best part of two hours, but I could not find the portrait you said ought to have been there," he said. "I'm sorry Botan. My living room window had not been shut correctly–"

"Oh goodness, I'm so sorry!" Botan yelped.

"–it's alright, the window is sufficiently high from the ground for me to not be concerned about robberies, and it was only marginally open. With that in mind though, I checked the street outside, I checked the garbage, and I even asked one of my neighbours if she had seen anything similar in the communal hallway and stairwell, but to no avail. Is it possible that you lost it somewhere else? Perhaps en route to my apartment?"

Botan slowly shook her head, the memory of Hiei holding the drawing all too clear in her mind. She had definitely dropped it in his apartment, Hiei had definitely picked it up and she was almost certain that he had put it down on top of the television: but after that she could not remember seeing it again.

"Perhaps Yukina's friend will draw another picture for you?" Kurama offered.

Botan shook her head again.

"It was important to me," she said quietly. "The circumstances under which I acquired it, and why… Oh well, I suppose it was silly really to care so much… It made me feel happy. It was the most wonderful gift I ever received."

"Really?" Kurama asked.

Botan paused, another thought creeping to the forefront of her mind.

"…The second most wonderful gift I ever received," she corrected herself.

Kurama gave her a mildly curious look but she brushed it off.

"Did Hiei really go back to Mukuro's territory?" she asked instead.

Kurama nodded.

"Is he still there?"

Botan felt her heart sink when Kurama said nothing and his expression darkened slightly.

"I wouldn't know that for sure," he eventually answered.

"Kurama, please don't be cryptic with me, please just be honest," she begged. "I have this terrible feeling that he's leaving us. Is he still there?"

"Honestly Botan I don't know if he is or not," Kurama insisted. "But if I am being completely honest, I would also say that, although I don't know if he is still there or not at this moment in time, I don't expect him to stay there long. I have a feeling he has other plans now that he is no longer in the tournament. I can only speculate as to what those plans may be."

"…So go ahead and speculate. And don't hold anything back. Please."

"Bad choice of words on my part, I apologise. I meant that I could only guess, not that I have a ready selection of likely possibilities in my mind. Honestly I don't know, and any guess I made would only be a guess."

Botan nodded, but she could feel herself getting close to tears.

"He's going away, isn't he?" she asked quietly. "And he's never going to come back. I know he is, I just… I just know it…"

"I don't think he would miss the next tournament," Kurama offered. "And if Koenma loses any more sacred spirit world treasures I'm sure Hiei will be there to help us recover them."

Botan swiped a hand angrily at her face as a tear escaped one eye against her will.

"Though being completely honest again, yes, I have a feeling that Hiei intends to move on and leave us all behind," Kurama added. "I'm sorry if hearing that causes you pain, Botan."

Botan nodded.

"I love him," she said quietly.

"I know you do," he replied.

"But…"

She sighed, dropping her face into her hands. She felt Kurama put his arms around her, but she barely cared. Hiei was an expert at hiding himself, if he had gone somewhere since leaving the hospital the day before, she knew that, with his speed and knowledge of demon world, he would already be beyond reach to any of the others.

"I fell too fast and I feel too much," she muttered into Kurama's chest. "I'm such a fool."

* * *

Hiei tapped a finger against the rim of his glass, glaring at the barmaid threateningly. She came to refill his glass reasonably quickly, but she did not look in the slightest affected by his attempts at intimidation. Probably because she knew him well enough to know that they were empty threats, he mused silently.

"Can I get a smile tonight?" she asked as she finished filling his glass.

"I'll start smiling when this place starts hiring staff that are more pleasing to my eyes," he flatly replied.

"Wow," she said, her tone bland and her face unchanged. "Careful there, buddy. When you turn on the charm like that my knees start to go weak."

Hiei gave her a withering look and she moved on again. It was arguably one of the dullest, most rundown bars in demon world, and the only thing more dingy than the appearance of the place was the clientele it played host to night after night. It was the sort of place someone would go to if they needed a reason to commit suicide: it was hopeless and pitiful, the drink terrible and the staff lifeless, and anyone who was so discontent with their life that they wanted to be in such a place was quite obviously better off dead. Hiei was there because he wanted to be alone.

In one corner of the room, a group of pitifully low-end D class demons were arguing about the format of the demon world tournament, and how unfair it was that, ultimately, only a strong fighter would ever be able to win. Hiei wondered what sort of fools they were: this was, after all, demon world, and strength was the only thing that mattered here, so of course the strongest fighter ought to be the leader. The last tournament had, he supposed, given a small glimmer of hope to such weaklings, since the lottery draw at the start of the events had led to large amounts of lower class demons in one division and large concentrations of upper class demons in another, meaning that some very weak demons managed to progress quite far through the rankings – some even further than Hiei himself had. The overall winner had still been quite predictable though, which, he supposed, proved that what the idiots in the corner were complaining about was actually true: regardless of how many weak demons made it to the final rounds, only the strongest would reign supreme.

The last demon world tournament already seemed like it had ended long ago for Hiei. He supposed that, had he bothered to stick around and watch it to its conclusion, it might not have seemed so abrupt and so long past, but it had been some time since the final round. Hiei was not actually sure how long it had been, since he had long ago lost track of time – months, he supposed. He had overheard the most salient highlights of the results from the regulars of the bar he was now sitting in back when the tournament had still been ongoing: disappointingly, Kurama had lost in the fourth round, after having defeated Hiei in the third, Yusuke had progressed further, becoming the champion of the A division and making it to the final four, but he had not gone any further as he had then faced the champion of B division – Mukuro – who had defeated him. Mukuro had won the tournament and then faced Enki, and apparently the battle had been quite legendary, but ultimately Mukuro had lost, making Enki the ruler again for another three years. Overall it was quite boring, but the fact that Yusuke and Mukuro had advanced so much further than they did in the first demon world tournament was surely a good sign that by the next tournament things might be a little more interesting.

Hiei also had no idea what had become of Kurama, Yusuke or Mukuro. He knew that they had not been killed in the tournament, but he had not spoken to or seen any of them since his own loss in the tournament. It was probably safe to assume that they had just returned to their normal lives, he decided: Mukuro was back to running the border patrol, Yusuke was back in the living world teaching martial arts to humans who would never understand his true strength and Kurama was back to studying plants. It was not really hugely important what they were doing anyway. They would all be reunited at the next tournament, and already time was flying by, so it would probably be upon them before they knew it. And maybe after three years apart they might have something interesting to say for themselves.

Hiei had not yet decided how he would pass those three years. He was currently living in a remote part of demon world, far from the tournament arenas, far from Mukuro's territory and far from the nearest border patrol route, and his initial thought had been to stay there for the full three years: but as the days and weeks went by, he had been thinking about Mukuro's threat to replace him if he did not return to her within a year. He was almost certain that it had not been a full year since the tournament had ended, but the first few weeks he had spent in his new home could easily have been months for what he went through, so it was hard to say.

Equally, however, the last few weeks he had spent in his new home could easily have been days, as time was starting to drag.

Initially, Hiei had left Mukuro's fortress with the idea of finding a famous demon he had heard of and insisting that he train him. He had thought that the training would take years and occupy his time until the next tournament, which seemed like a perfect plan. He had found the demon he sought – a slightly eccentric and elderly rat demon, who, despite having lost one of his eyes, still had remarkable depth perception and a surprisingly wide field of vision – and it had not taken him too long to convince the old man to train him. The rat demon had earned his reputation many, many centuries ago, when he had lived in the human world and trained samurai warriors in what later became known as forbidden swordsmanship techniques. Hiei had thought it appropriate that he, as the forbidden child and a keen swordsman, should learn these techniques, and so he had taken himself to where he now was. At first the training had seemed like something Kurama would have put him through – it was all meditation and defence mechanisms and thinking – but it had soon become more violent, bloody and interesting. And unfortunately, once he reached the violent, bloody and interesting part of his training, Hiei had found himself mastering all of the forbidden methods in record time. It was not that they were easy or meaningless merely that he had been an extremely focused student, dedicated to learning and improving his skills. He had also wrongly assumed that his teacher would be fitter and stronger and have a temple full of equally as skilled fighters at his disposal to keep Hiei amused: instead the old man lived in a wooden shack by the edge of a forest, with a disturbingly large collection of mongooses in his back yard (for keeping the snakes at bay, he had said).

Hiei swallowed back a yawn, pushing his drink around the bar a little as he considered consuming it. It was quite vile, after all. The argument in the corner of the bar was becoming more heated by the second, and he sensed that it would soon resort to physical violence, and whilst there was nothing especially honourable or appealing about a bar-room brawl, it would hopefully result in a few casualties, meaning a few less of the typical morons who frequented the place.

"Hey Hiei."

Hiei lifted his head, so surprised to hear someone say his own name that he did not even bother to check who was addressing him.

"You're a long way from home," the voice continued. "Did you have a lover's tiff with Mukuro and run away again?"

Hiei slowly turned his head, growling as his eyes landed on a smug-looking fox demon who had decided to sit next to him at the bar and smile at him in a most infuriating manner.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

His eyes wandered to the table in the corner, where the ongoing argument had started to dissolve into a few shoves, proving that it would soon erupt into something quite violent.

"I see," he grunted. "A few raised voices and the smell of sweat and you came running out here with your panties around your ankles."

Hiei saw the girl's face drop at his words, which was exactly the effect he had been aiming for. He was hoping that if he pissed her off badly enough she would just get up and go, and leave him alone again. He took a sip from his drink, unsure if the dull and mouldy flavour made him feel any better or not.

"You've never complained about it before," she said quietly. "And at least I don't lie to myself all the time like you do."

Hiei gave a short, mirthless laugh before fixing his eyes onto her again.

"Listen, Joto," he began.

"It's Koto," she corrected him.

"Whatever," he replied. "Don't sit there and presume to know me unless you want to die."

"I don't presume anything," she flatly replied. "I don't know a lot about you at all, but I don't really care, either. I know that you're an obnoxious, arrogant prick and that's about all I need to know about you."

"Yes, I despise you too. I wonder then why you chose to sit here and talk at me."

"It amuses me that you keep running away from things. I've been in the ring next to you when you've fought in the past, I know how fearless you are in the face of death, but when it comes to matters of the heart you're the biggest coward I know. I find that really, really funny."

"You don't know what you're talking about you stupid woman."

"This is one of the shittiest parts of demon world. You were living with Mukuro before in one of the best parts of demon world. There's only one reason you would chose to leave that behind and come here: you're sulking because Mukuro doesn't want you as a lover."

Hiei sighed and took a gulp from his drink.

"I think the correct term for this is "emotionally retarded"," she continued.

"If you want to still be around to yell your way through the next demon world tournament, I suggest you shut-up and get away from me," he warned her.

"Are you upset because she's so much stronger than you or just because she doesn't want you?" she asked.

"With ears as big as the ones on your head, there's no way you didn't hear my last warning!"

"Or are you just scared that people will think you're weak?"

Hiei gripped a fist around his drink, the glass shattering easily between his fingers, spraying the contents in every direction.

"For a guy who never holds back on the physical side, you're really repressed emotionally," she carried on, seemingly oblivious to his increasing ire. "Most guys I meet have a lot of passion about other things, and they learn to apply that passion in the bedroom. With you, it's the other way around. You're really passionate in the bedroom, but everywhere else you're just a cold-hearted jerk."

"I'm going to warn you one last time," Hiei growled in a low voice. "Get away from me or die."

"Sure," she sighed. "Push me away too. Maybe I was getting to know you too well and now you're scared of me too. One day you're gonna feel something for someone, and I hope she treats you the same way that you treat everyone else. You can't run away from your feelings forever you know. And for the record, you're maybe avoiding the lows, but you're missing out on the highs. Maybe if you let yourself feel something for once you might not be so miserable all the time."

"You despise romance just as much as I do, I've heard… Wait, what did you just say?"

"I said if you let yourself feel something –"

"No, before that."

"Um… You're maybe avoiding the lows, but you're missing out on the highs?"

"If I lose the highs at least I'm spared the lows?"

"Exactly!"

Hiei slowly inhaled, looking down at the shattered remains of his drink. His indecision about whether to return or not had suddenly come to an end. As he started to exhale he rose from his seat and raced out of the bar.

* * *

"Oh my God, I'm hallucinating!"

Botan smiled sweetly at the man sweating profusely in front of her.

"I'm flying and I'm seeing a woman with blue hair riding around on an oar!"

"My name's Botan!" she offered. "I'm a ferry girl from spirit world, come to escort you to the afterlife! Were you a stubborn man, Mister Arakawa? Because your ghost certainly is!"

"M-my ghost?" the man stammered, sweating some more.

Botan smiled wider.

"Yes, that's why I'm here," she explained, retrieving her notebook from one sleeve of her kimono. "According to my records, you died two days ago, but your ghost has refused to leave the living world! It's time for you to come to spirit world, Sir!"

"But I can't be dead! And there's no way spirit world would send a silly little girl like you to collect my soul! Are those flowers in your hair?"

Botan self-consciously touched a hand to the artificial flowers tied around her ponytail, her smile faltering.

"I was in the middle of…" he started. "I mean I was… One minute I was with my wife, having a great time, suddenly I get this pain in my chest, then I'm in an ambulance, somebody tells me it's a heart attack, and now I'm dead? But nobody dies from a heart attack nowadays! I'm only 52! I want my money back!"

"Life is not a refundable commodity, Mister Arakawa," Botan patiently replied.

"I need to speak to my wife!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible. You're dead, you see."

"If you really are an ambassador for the afterlife, surely you can work some witchy magic and let me talk to her just one more time!"

Botan took a deep breath, silently wondering why every dead person she met lately was a complete and utter bastard.

"I'm terribly sorry Sir, but it's impossible for you to communicate with anyone in the living world now," she said carefully. "If you like, I can take you to your wake and you can watch and listen for a little while, but we can't stay long. You have to retire to spirit world soon, your ghost doesn't have enough energy to sustain your soul much longer."

The man narrowed his eyes slightly at her but eventually nodded his head.

"Okay, take me there," he agreed.

"Grab on," Botan replied, swooping down closer to him.

She expected him to grab the blade of her oar in his hand as Yusuke had done and as many others had done too in such a situation, but instead he grabbed the handle and sat down at her side, with one leg either side of the oar. As she took off Botan cringed, tensing as the man put his arms around her waist and held onto her far too tightly, breathing heavily into her ear.

Botan had encountered quite a lot of restless souls recently. Perhaps it was the season for it, she told herself: it was close to Christmas, and often people who died just before Christmas were angry and felt cheated. Oddly enough though, the man on her oar now had not mentioned the season at all. Ordinarily it would not worry her, and she would simply spend the time and do what she had to do to convince the lost souls she found to go with her to spirit world; but things were pretty hectic in spirit world and had been since the end of the demon world tournament, and she did not really have a lot of time to spend coaxing reluctant dead people into doing what they were meant to for the sake of their own salvation.

As she flew on, Botan started to think about the madness of spirit world. As expected, when she, Koenma and George had eventually returned to their posts, there had been an inconceivable amount of paperwork and a backlog of lost souls awaiting them. Botan had caught up with her work relatively quickly, but Koenma had been swamped for months and had endured more than a few heated exchanges with his father on the matter. He seemed to have got things back in order in the last few weeks, though he had recently taken to spending a lot of time in the spirit world library with his nose stuck in a book – which was a little strange. And any order he had restored looked set to change as something extremely bizarre had happened: George had disappeared. As long as Botan had known Lord Koenma, George Saotome had been faithfully at his side, but she had not seen the harried blue ogre for over a week – which was unheard of. Botan was concerned, but Koenma had not even mentioned it, and he seemed to be getting his meals and having his menial tasks performed by a combination of Ayame and another ogre.

Sometimes it was as though George had never existed at all – Botan wondered if maybe he had been a figment of her imagination for the last several hundred years.

"Bingo!" she said, snapping out of her reverie. "Here we are!"

She lowered her oar down to a snow-covered lawn and banished it, allowing her travelling companion to drop to the ground on his own. Together they walked inside the house, passing through walls and bodies to reach the room the casket was held in. Botan waited patiently as the man with her ran over to his own dead body and had a few moments of panic, denial, anger and grief before his attention shifted to a woman dabbing her eyes with a tissue. Botan joined him as he moved over to her side, gazing at her longingly.

"Was she your wife?" Botan asked.

She saw the man look confused and angry and she quickly smiled.

"Oh don't worry, they can't hear us!" she assured him.

He looked less than convinced but nodded regardless.

"It was about the worst way I could have gone for her," he said quietly. "We were having sex at the time."

Botan could not keep the shock from her face, and the man started to laugh at her response.

"Why am I even telling you that?" he chortled. "You're not even real! You're just a mythical creature sent here to charm my soul away from the real world! You don't have feelings! And if you're from spirit world, you probably don't even know what sex is: I don't know why they even bothered making you look like a cute girl, what's the point if you can't ever do anything about it? Why am I even asking you that? It's not like you understand, is it? All you have to do is smile and take me to your leader. It's a no-brain job and obviously you're perfect for it."

Botan clenched her fists at her sides and took a deep breath, counting to ten before she exhaled again. She then summoned her oar and hopped onto it.

"Time to go, Mister Arakawa," she said tightly.

"You took me here to say goodbye," he replied.

"Yes, but we don't have much time," she reminded him. "Now please, grab on and let's go!"

He began muttering out some more deeply personal insults, but he climbed on behind Botan regardless. She took them out of the house and up into the sky again, only paying attention to what the man behind her was saying when she felt his fingers gripping at her hips through her clothing.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, turning her head to him.

"You feel like a real girl," he said. "Do you have a real body under those clothes? Do you have working organs or are you just all smooth and featureless like a mannequin?"

Botan turned her head away sharply, slapping him over the face with her ponytail. She was starting to lose her patience with him, something she never normally did, and she was relieved when they finally arrived in spirit world. As he was riding on the oar with her and still holding onto her far too tightly, she was able to fly at a ridiculous speed, which soon brought her to where she needed to be. She gladly deposited the man at the end of a line waiting to be judged and assigned a place in spirit world and quickly shot off before he could finish asking her why he had to queue to be told he was dead, something that he already knew anyway – like she had never heard that one before, she thought dryly.

Botan then weaved her way through the usual mess of frantic ferry girls and overworked ogres to reach the doors to Koenma's office. She had finished the list of duties she had been given for the day, but she suspected that there would be another list awaiting her in Koenma's office, and so she diligently took herself there.

"Knock, knock," she said flatly, walking into the office without waiting to be invited in or formally greeted.

"Ah, Botan!" Koenma greeted her, grinning at her from behind his desk. "How are you today?"

"I'm very tired, Sir," she frankly replied.

"Good, good," he said.

Botan frowned slightly, wondering if he had even bothered to listen to her reply.

"I got a message from Yusuke this morning," Koenma continued. "He was calling me, but he was looking for you too."

"Really?" Botan brightened.

"Yes, he invited us to a pre-Christmas party with him, Kurama, Keiko and the Kuwabaras at Genkai's temple."

"Oh, how splendid!"

"Yes, why don't you go on ahead without me?"

Botan started to frown again.

"Sir?" she asked, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

"I have a few things I need to finish off here before I leave, you go on ahead to living world right now, and I'll join you there later today," he replied.

"Well, well, look at you, mister diligent!" Botan said, laughing good-heartedly. "Your father would be very proud of you indeed! I think this must be the first time ever that you've put your paperwork ahead of your own jolly escapades!"

"…Just go on ahead, Botan."

"I certainly won't say no to a little R and R, Sir! I will gladly go on ahead, but you know I could wait and take you on my oar–"

"Go, Botan."

"Well alrighty then, I'll be off! I certainly can't wait to get there! Do you know, it's been months since I last had the chance to spend some time with everyone all together! It'll be just super to have–"

"Get out of my office, Botan!"

"Okay dokay!"

Botan spun around and gladly skipped out of Koenma's office: it looked like today was going to be a good day after all.

* * *

"Well I am honoured."

Hiei contained a sigh. He wanted to sit down, but Mukuro had apparently done some redecorating in his absence, and the nice leather chair he usually occupied opposite her was gone.

"What brings you back here, Hiei?" she asked.

"I finished what I had to do," he plainly replied.

Her face twitched slightly and there was a brief silence before she spoke again.

"I see," she eventually said. "Just like that?"

"I'm ready to return to working the border patrol," he said.

She nodded.

"Things didn't work out with the ferry girl then?"

Hiei's face dropped and his body tensed.

"Let me guess: all that sweetness was just too much for you," Mukuro continued. "Sugar does rot, Hiei."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he growled back.

"Humour me," she replied. "Which was it that scared you off first: the chirpy do-gooder with her constant smiling and unwavering belief in love or your sister's baby?"

Hiei started to smoulder where he stood, the steady rise in his demonic energy threatening to burn off his clothing.

"I'm assuming you have spent these last few months in the living world, no?" Mukuro asked.

"No," he replied. "I was in demon world, training."

"Oh I see," she said with a short nod. "You ran away again. Avoid the lows by sacrificing the highs."

Hiei's energy dropped and he almost fell over.

"…What?" he asked.

"I'm not one for romance myself Hiei," she replied. "That's one area you and I have always agreed on. I do however believe in feeling something and letting myself be a part of a relationship that is more than just an alliance of warriors. I'm not above admitting that I have friends, Hiei, but to you that word is mud. As far as the ferry girl is concerned, I never honestly expected that to last, but if you've been hiding from your sister all this time then you need to take a good long hard look at yourself. I know she knows about her relation to you now, should I also assume that since she's found out you've been avoiding her?"

"It's not your concern what I do or don't do with regards to my sister."

"Hiei, I know how much you adore your sister. Stop denying yourself happiness for fear of being seen as weak. Go and visit her. I'm not taking you back here until you do."

"…You can't threaten me like that. If I want to stay here, I will!"

"Just go and see her and get it out of your system."

"You can't tell me what to do!"

Mukuro sighed.

"It's reducing your effectiveness as a warrior," she told him bluntly. "Fix your mind and then come back and see me and we can get back to working on your body."

"I'm not going anywhere," Hiei stubbornly replied.

"I understand your logic – if you lose the highs, at least you're spared the lows – but if you insist on repressing everything all the time, you risk one day finding something that overwhelms you, and you will lose all self-control and go to extremes… And I don't want to see you the day that happens…"

Hiei closed his eyes and concentrated on just breathing. He was getting sick of hearing everyone say the same thing to him, over and over. First Botan, then Kurama, then that ring announcer woman and now Mukuro. He opened his eyes again, finally realising that there was a common denominator to the madness.

"I'm leaving," he announced.

He turned and took off, but was unfortunately not quite fast enough to avoid hearing Mukuro yelling the words "be gentle with her" after him. He had no idea who she was even referring to but he no longer cared because finally he saw what was wrong: Botan, Kurama, the ring announcer and Mukuro. All women. Well, Kurama was a man, but he liked flowers, he had long hair, he was far too pretty and spent far too much time with his mother, so he might as well be a woman. It was like a curse, Hiei decided. He had been born to a village inhabited only by women, and that had started a trend that had never seemed to end. The only times he had ever actually been happy was in his very early days with the gang of thieves who raised him and during the missions he had completed for spirit world: and in both cases he had been surrounded by men and women had been completely removed from the equation.

"I've had enough of women!" he yelled, coming to a halt in the middle of a forest.

His voice echoed around the trees several times and he felt quite good about hearing himself say those words until he noticed a very tall, very slender, very effeminate male demon winking at him from the edge of the path.

With a groan of defeat, Hiei turned and took off again, running all the way to the nearest portal to the living world and gladly launching himself through it.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Koenma, George and Ayame are on a secret mission, meanwhile the reunion party at Genkai's temple is crashed by an unexpected guest who sends the happy day into chaos. And it's Yukina's moment to shine! **Chapter 40: The Investigation**


	40. The Exchange

**Recap:** Months passed after the demon world tournament and the gang are gathering together for a pre-Christmas reunion party, meanwhile Hiei was getting sick of women always talking at him about feelings and he headed off to the living world.

* * *

 **Chapter 40: The Exchange**

Koenma drummed his fingers against his desk, watching the screen ahead of him, which was currently displaying the view from the camera by the temple gates. When he saw Botan appear near the bottom of the screen he stilled his fingers and sat forwards, watching her mount her oar and take off into the skies. As soon as she was out of sight he pressed a red button on the control console of his desk.

"Ayame, report to Lord Koenma's office immediately," he announced.

Within seconds his trusted ferry girl appeared at his side and he greeted her with a smile that she barely returned.

"Ayame, I have a mission for you," he said. "It's a very important, top secret, mission. You can't tell anyone what you're doing or why, and you also can't fail. Do you understand?"

"Certainly Sir," she replied, bowing her head. "What can I do for you?"

"Botan has just gone to the living world – to Genkai's temple to be exact – and I need you to follow her," he explained. "Do it discreetly though, I don't want her to know that you're following her. I need you to make sure that she goes to the temple and that she stays there for the rest of the day. I also need you to make sure that this list of people are there the entire day too."

Koenma pushed a piece of paper across his desk towards Ayame.

"If any of them try to leave the temple grounds at any point I need you to call me immediately," he added. "Don't let them see you and don't try to intervene, just call me and report if any of them don't get there or if any of them try to leave."

Ayame picked up the list.

"Botan, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Yukina, Keiko, Shizuru, Kurama and Hiei," she read aloud. "Can I ask why you need all of these people in one place, Sir?"

"I'm working on something, and if any of them find out about it before I finish, it could be disastrous," he replied.

She nodded her understand and bowed politely before leaving the office. Koenma waited until he was confident that she was sufficiently far enough away from his office before returning to his control console and dialling up a communicator. A few seconds later the face he sought appeared on the screen in front of his desk.

"Ogre, you better be almost finished, we have to leave spirit world shortly," he said firmly.

"But Sir, it was such a long journey!" George complained.

The ogre did look exhausted, but Koenma barely cared. He had been gone for over a week, and Koenma was starting to suspect that George was just milking his assignment and using it an excuse to have some time off of his usual duties.

"Get back here within the hour, ogre!" he warned.

"I still don't understand why you sent me, Sir," George moaned. "One of your ferry girls could have made the journey in less than a day flying on an oar, and even you can summon a cloud to fly around the realm, you could have done this yourself!"

"Ogre your job is to take orders not to question them!" Koenma snapped irritably. "Get back here and be ready for a journey to the living world!"

Koenma terminated the link before the ogre could argue the matter any further, sitting back in his seat with a heavy sigh. He pulled open a drawer at his side and retrieved the small, shiny object that had been stored there since the end of the demon world tournament, turning it around in his fingers. The most amazing thing was that Botan had never noticed it missing, and neither had Kurama.

* * *

"Knock, knock!"

"Botan!"

Botan grinned, waving cheerfully at the others. Despite the cold weather, everyone was gathered near the water garden outside Genkai's temple, and it looked like Botan had been the last to arrive – except for Koenma and George, she reminded herself. She gladly made her way around everyone, hugging them all despite neither Yusuke nor Kuwabara particularly wanting her to. She was so happy to be amongst her friends again after the horrible day she had just endured that she almost felt like crying.

"Oh goodness!" she blurted out, all thoughts of tears leaving her mind as her eyes landed on Megumi. "I can't believe how much she's grown already!"

"She's walking around on her own now," Kuwabara replied.

"Already?" Botan echoed.

"Demon babies develop faster," he said.

Botan paused, wondering why she had not thought of that herself after having met one year old Hiei and knowing what he had been capable of.

"Of course," she agreed. "Hi, Megumi!"

Megumi, who was still very small, was standing upright with only the slightest hint of unsteadiness, her hands clinging to Kuwabara's leg. Like Yukina, Megumi was dressed in a plain kimono, unaffected by the cold that had everyone else in winter clothing.

"Oh it's so good to see everyone again!" Botan said, grinning around at everyone.

"Where's your little bundle of joy, Botan?" Yusuke asked her.

"My what?" she asked.

"Koenma?" he responded.

"Oh, Lord Koenma had something else to do before he came here," she explained.

"You mean he's actually doing some work instead of goofing off?"

"Yes, I also thought it was a tad odd…"

"Oh well, at least it means we don't have to listen to his crappy jokes right now."

Botan gasped indignantly but Yusuke merely shrugged. She wanted to tell him off for being so rude to her boss, but she was distracted from her thoughts at the sound of Megumi giggling. Kuwabara had picked her up and was pulling faces at her again – and again, they were the sort of faces that would not look amiss amid a line-up of demon world felons – and for some strange reason Megumi was delighted by it.

"She's a very happy child," Keiko said to Botan, as though sensing her apprehension. "She laughs all the time. I don't think I've ever seen her cry even once."

"She absolutely loves my brother," Shizuru added.

"Maybe she's blind," Yusuke suggested. "Or maybe for an ice maiden, Kuwabara is really hot."

Botan, Keiko and even Shizuru groaned at the thought.

"Yukina said she cries if she sees somebody pulling a mean face," Keiko said. "But I've never seen that. And some of those faces Kuwabara pulls are really scary."

"I can pull a mean face," Yusuke said.

He grabbed his cheeks and pulled them out sideways, crossing his eyes and sticking out his bottom jaw: but Megumi just laughed and clapped her hands at his performance.

"Well that confirms it," Yusuke said, turning to Keiko. "The kid loves ugly."

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara snapped, finally noticing what was being said. "Megumi's happy because she knows that we're all happy and that we all care about her! And stop trying to make her cry!"

"I wasn't trying to make her cry!" Yusuke defended himself. "I was just testing to see if she prefers ugly faces. See she doesn't respond to me when I smile…"

Yusuke smiled at Megumi, who stared blankly back at him.

"Now watch this," he said.

He hooked a finger into each side of his mouth and pulled his lips into a diagonal sneer, rolling his eyes back in his head. Megumi started to laugh again and Kuwabara's face dropped.

"See?" Yusuke said, relaxing his face again. "The kid loves ugly."

"That's not true," Yukina said, touching a reassuring hand to Kuwabara's elbow. "Megumi is just very happy because she knows we all care about her. She loves all faces, except for mean ones."

"Which is great, because nobody here has got a mean face!" Kuwabara said cheerfully.

* * *

"Get the fuck away from me, you crazy bitch!" Hiei roared, glaring with wide eyes and bared fangs at the girl apparently following him along the street.

She squealed and took off running, thankfully in the opposite direction to the one Hiei was heading. He did not recognise the girl at all, but he did not need to: obviously she was just another one of the countless girls who followed Kurama around, and obviously she had seen him with Kurama before and made the connection that he would lead her to Shuichi's apartment. He almost had as well, but as he had turned onto Kurama's street he had decided to just rid himself of her. Since he had decided to visit Kurama, he at least wanted to do so peacefully, without some little girl crying about something and hurting his ears with her shrill voice.

Hiei took one last good look about himself before he approached the main door to Kurama's apartment block, ensuring that there was no secret gaggle of giggling girls waiting to pounce the second Shuichi appeared at the door. He then pressed a finger against the button next to "Minamino, Shuichi", holding it down for the best part of a minute before releasing it, waiting barely ten seconds and then trying again. When five long buzzes did not get him a response, Hiei started pushing the next button down the list, which was shortly answered by a female voice.

"Hello?"

"Where's Shuichi?" Hiei demanded.

"I don't know, but you're pressing the wrong buzzer."

Hiei growled impatiently and began pressing the next button down.

"Hello?" a male voice answered.

"Where's Shuichi?" Hiei demanded again.

"I don't know, but this isn't his apartment, you pressed the wrong buzzer. I think he went out early this morning, probably to avoid the bitches from downstairs. Can't say that I blame him, though."

Hiei backed away from the door, tilting back his head to look up at Kurama's windows: the bedroom window was still boarded up and the curtains were drawn at the living room window, despite it being the middle of the day. If Kurama was not at his apartment, there were only three other places he might be: his mother's house, the university or the old lady's temple. Hiei lowered his head again, frowning slightly as he realised that the man who had answered his last call was still talking through the intercom about the woes of living in an apartment block full of women. Although he was incredibly boring, Hiei could sympathise with the man's problem: too many damn women in his life.

With two leaps Hiei took himself to the top of a nearby tree, readying himself to jump to the next tree along, intending to leap from tree to tree. He stopped however when he noticed a car approaching the building behind him. He carefully turned around to watch as two figures got out of the car, one looking like an average human and the other looking unusually bulky and strangely over-dressed, even taking the colder weather into account. The normal-looking figure paid the taxi driver and then turned around, and Hiei's face twisted: it was Koenma, and the awkward-looking oaf at his side was a blue-skinned ogre of spirit world.

Hiei stayed perfectly still and silent, watching them approach Kurama's apartment block. He wondered what they would do when they discovered that Kurama was not at home: but to his surprise, they did not bother pressing the intercom, instead somehow managing to open the door and walk right into the building. Hiei shifted his attention back the Kurama's living room window, and, after a few minutes, the curtains were pulled open, and he could see that Koenma and his assistant were actually inside Kurama's apartment.

Well that was odd.

Not that Hiei really cared: Kurama was not there, and that was the most important thing as far as he was concerned, so he shot off again, heading towards the university campus grounds to search for the fox demon there next.

* * *

Koenma looked about himself slowly. There was nothing amiss or even remotely suspicious in Kurama's living room, but he strongly suspected that, somewhere within the apartment walls, there was something potentially incriminating, and if that was the case, he would be faced with a terrible dilemma.

"You know what to look for, George," he said quietly.

George became starry-eyed and started telling Koenma how much he loved hearing him say his name but Koenma ignored him, moving back into the hall and opening the first closed door he came to. It led to a small bathroom, which a quick glance around showed to be empty. There was the possibility that something might be hidden in the cistern of the toilet or behind the bath panel, but Koenma had a feeling that what he was looking for would be too big to hide that easily. He moved on to the next closed door, pushing it open and stepping into the room beyond.

"Oh dear…" he said quietly.

Inside the room were four flowers emitting light that could only be a replica of spirit world light, and they were all facing the centre of the room where two large plants were flourishing: one was a near identical tree to the Tree of Previous Life and the other was a sprawling, creeping bush of some sorts, and both had an abundance of flowers and fruits hanging from them.

This was not good.

* * *

"Oh dear!" Botan gasped. "Megumi!"

Kuwabara turned his head, looking in the direction Botan was pointing.

"Ah, don't worry about her," he said with a shrug.

"But…" Botan began.

Megumi was standing in the middle of a small, arched footbridge that passed over the largest pond in the water garden, and she was leaning over the edge of it, and as she was small enough to fit below and between the struts of the handrail, she was dangerously close to falling into the pond.

"But she might fall in the water!" Botan said urgently, turning to Kuwabara again.

"Nah, she does that all the time," he said dismissively. "She's just watching the fish. She never falls. She's got really good balance."

Botan turned back to watch the young girl leaning further and further over the edge of the bridge. She hoped that Kuwabara was right: though she was sure that he must be, since he adored the little girl and would never let her come to any harm. He could only possibly be this confident if he was absolutely sure that she would come to no harm where she was. Botan nodded and started to relax, only to have her nerves shattered at the sound of a sudden splash from the direction of the pond.

Everyone got up and started to run towards the pond, Botan, Kuwabara and Yukina getting there first. They all stopped several feet short of their destination however when they saw what had actually happened: Megumi was floating in the air barely a few inches above the surface of the water, two hands gripped around her waist, attached to two arms that disappeared beneath the water's surface.

"…What the hell?" Kuwabara muttered.

Slowly Megumi began to rise through the air, all the while looking not in the least bit bothered that she had almost plunged into the icy depths of the water. The arms holding her aloft began to emerge, followed shortly by a black-haired, red-eyed face that looked torn between fear and outrage. Megumi looked down at the face below her, and for several seconds everyone else watching held their breaths as, for the first time, Hiei looked at the face of his own niece. The moment seemed to drag on, the tension rising, until finally Megumi broke the silence and most of the rest of those present saw something else they never had before: Megumi began to scream and cry uncontrollably.

"Oh goodness!" Botan gasped.

"He's killing her!" Kuwabara wailed.

"Shut-up, Kuwabara!" Yusuke and Botan both snapped at him.

"I've never heard her cry like that!" Keiko muttered.

"She doesn't like mean faces!" Yukina explained.

"Well she's got no hope of ever liking Hiei…" Kuwabara muttered.

"Kuwabara!" Botan roared.

Everyone fell silent again as Hiei rose to his feet and began wading out of the water. Megumi continued to scream and thrash around in his hold but he patiently held her at arm's length and took her over to Yukina.

"I'm so sorry!" she said as she accepted her child from his hands. "Are you alright?"

Hiei released Megumi and turned his back on Yukina wordlessly.

"Thank you so much," Yukina added.

Hiei made a small grunting sound and in a flash of motion he had Kuwabara pinned against the wall of the temple, his length of his sword held dangerously close to his throat.

"If you ever let that happen again, I will not hesitate to kill you," Hiei growled at him.

"Wh-what?" Kuwabara echoed, sweating despite the cold.

"If any harm ever comes to that child, I will hold you personally responsible," Hiei added.

"It-it's not even anything to do with you! Why do you care what happens? You haven't spoken to any of us in months and now you're trying to act like a hero? What is your problem?"

"Kazuma!" Yukina cried.

She whimpered in frustration before marching over to Botan and pushing Megumi into her arms. Botan hurriedly gathered up the still sobbing child, watching with wide eyes as Yukina then marched over to where Hiei was holding Kuwabara.

"Please, stop," she said gently, touching a hand to Hiei's arm.

He obediently lowered his weapon and took a step back, but did not lose any of the intensity in the glare he was still giving Kuwabara.

"Kazuma, Hiei does care what happens to Megumi," Yukina explained. "Of course he does, she's his family."

"What?" Kuwabara yelped, glancing back and forth between Hiei and Yukina.

"Hiei is my brother, remember?" Yukina added.

"Wha… He…?"

Yukina nodded and Kuwabara turned so pale he looked as though he might collapse.

"Oh God no!" he cried. "But he's so ugly and mean!"

"Kazuma, please!" Yukina responded.

"Him?" he asked her, pointing at Hiei. "Really? But… He's so mean!"

Kuwabara turned to Hiei then, who had finally turned his head away, looking down at his sword, which he was still holding at his side.

"You're Yukina's brother?" he asked. "But that doesn't make any sense! You can't be! You don't even look anything like her! And you never even visit any more! Megumi hates you, and she doesn't hate anybody!"

"Kuwabara!" Botan yelled, her anger flaring.

"But it's true!" he responded. "Didn't you see what just happened? When Megumi saw his nasty, ugly little gerbil face she started screaming and bawling her eyes out! He can't be her uncle, she can't even look at him!"

"She was only crying because he had a mean face on!" Yukina argued.

"But that's how he always looks!" Kuwabara pointed out. "He's always mean, and he's always making girls cry!"

"Kaz…" Yukina began, her voice faltering slightly.

Kuwabara turned to Hiei again, his face twisting as he eyed him over.

"I can't believe this," he said quietly. "Poor lovely Yukina has waited all this time to find her brother, and in the end its you. You're ugly and you're mean and you hate everything and everyone and you love scaring people, even your own sister's baby. What kind of man are you anyway?"

Botan held her breath and cuddled Megumi closer to her chest, anticipating a violent – and frankly justified – response from Hiei: but to her surprise he returned his sword to its scabbard and shot off in a blur of black and white, spraying water around him as he went. Botan turned to Keiko and passed Megumi to her before marching over to Yukina's side to confront Kuwabara herself.

"Well Mister Kuwabara, I hope you're proud of yourself!" she said sternly.

"Everything I said was true!" Kuwabara defended himself.

"Maybe so, but that was pretty lame to say it to his face like that," Yusuke added. "Especially at such a moment."

"And Hiei's never said anything bad to me at a bad moment?" Kuwabara asked.

"That's not the point!" Botan snapped. "Hiei is a perfectly decent guy, and lucky for us he's always there at the exact moment that we need him the most. Even today his timing was spot-on! If he hadn't been here, poor Megumi would have fallen into the pond and she might have frozen herself under the water in her panic and died! Hiei had every right to be angry at you, you were very irresponsible to leave her unattended like that!"

"Botan's right, Kazuma," Yukina added. "Hiei's my brother and he's Megumi's uncle, and he cares about us both, and he just wants us to be safe and happy. He helped us today and you shouldn't have said those horrible things to him. I want you to apologise to him."

"You want me to do what?" Kuwabara yelped.

"Apologise to Hiei!" Botan yelled. "Just go and… Wait…"

Botan turned to Yukina.

"Apologise to Hiei?" she asked her. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"If you don't apologise to Hiei and make amends with him – if you don't apologise to my brother and make peace with him, then I don't think I'll ever be able to smile again, Kazuma!"

Botan yelped in shock at Yukina's outburst. She watched the ice maiden stomp over to Keiko and retrieve her baby before hurrying back inside.

"I never meant to upset Yukina!" Kuwabara muttered.

Botan sighed and slowly shook her head.

"Hey Kuwabara?" she said, turning towards him again.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"Yukina may be too nice to add this to her argument, but I'm not," she replied.

"Add what?" he asked.

Botan punched him in the face as hard as she could before running after Yukina. Once she was inside the temple she began hurriedly clawing through her pockets until she found what she sought, eventually producing a demon compass. She did not have a locket of Hiei's hair to tune it to, but she did have something else that she hoped would be enough to help the compass lock onto his signal: a pearly grey hiruiseki.

* * *

Koenma sighed slowly as he studied the three items resting on the breakfast bar in front of him. One was a Fruit of Previous Life, hand-picked from the Tree of Previous Life in spirit world by George, one was an almost identical Fruit of Previous Life Koenma himself had just picked from an almost identical Tree of Previous Life growing in Kurama's bedroom and the third one was some sort of pear, apparently.

"Cut these open," he ordered.

George looked up from his position sat on the futon.

"Now, ogre," Koenma added.

"…You're standing right next to the knife block, Sir," George pointed out.

"These hands don't do physical labour," Koenma flatly replied, wiggling his slender fingers in the air.

George sighed and got to his feet again, moving over to stand opposite Koenma. He took out a knife from the block by the wall and cut each of the fruits in half. Koenma nodded slowly at what he saw. As he had expected, the fruit George had picked in spirit world only had one stone in the middle from which another tree could possibly be grown. The two other fruits both contained exactly the same size, shape and colour of stone, and it was not unreasonable to assume that all three fruits were Fruits of Previous Life: but for some reason the two that had grown in Kurama's apartment were slightly different in appearance.

"Do you know what the Fruit of Previous Life does, ogre?" Koenma asked, lifting his eyes to George.

"I saw what it did to Kurama during the dark tournament, Sir," George replied. "It sends a person back to an earlier version of themselves."

"That's correct," Koenma said with a nod. "As a spirit in a false body, these won't have any effect on me. You, on the other hand, would be transformed from consuming any one of these fruits."

George looked down at the fruits, the corners of his mouth slowly drooping downwards.

"You brought me here to be your guinea pig?" he asked forlornly.

"Exactly," Koenma plainly replied. "Juice each fruit into a separate glass, and drink the one from spirit world first."

"But Sir…"

"Do it George. It's the only way I can be absolutely sure about what we're dealing with here."

"But Sir, what if the fruits grown here in the living world do something else to me – something terrible?"

"Don't be such a coward! And besides, I think Kurama used the fruits grown here during the last demon world tournament. He suffered no ill effects, you shouldn't either."

George nodded and set about juicing each of the fruits, dragging his feet and looking miserable as he went.

* * *

Hiei stopped, pressing his back hard against the tree. This was getting ridiculous – he was actually out of breath! This day just kept getting worse and worse! He had been running about the forests of the old lady's land for over half an hour, and yet still Yukina seemed to be able to find him whenever and wherever he stopped. He did not want to leave the area entirely – he had set his mind on talking to Kurama – but it was proving impossible to shake Yukina from his trail. She was moving quicker than she usually would, riding on some strange human contraption with wheels, and although she was still nowhere near as fast as he was, every time he found a hiding place and stopped, he did not have to wait long before she began closing in on him. Had she developed some sort of strange tracking abilities? That was not something ice maidens were known for, but he had built his own strength by learning skills not typical to his kind, perhaps his sister shared that trait.

"Hiei?" she called out. "Hiei, can you hear me?"

Hiei muttered out a curse, peeking around the trunk of the tree. Yukina had stopped at the foot of the tree he was near the top of, and she had tilted her head back to look almost directly at the branch he was standing on. How had she known?

Sighing in defeat, Hiei stepped out onto the branch, pushing his hands into his pockets and looking down at her.

"Hiei!" she said cheerfully, waving a hand at him. "I'm so sorry about what happened back at the temple. I never got the chance to thank you properly, you saved Megumi's life!"

Hiei said nothing. There was nothing he could say, really. He had never actually wanted to touch the baby – his hands that destroyed everything were certainly never meant to touch his delicate sister's precious baby – and as he had suspected would happen, when his hands did touch the child she had instantly started screaming. Something else he had broken, he thought miserably, and just another ice maiden who despised and feared him.

"Will you come down please?" Yukina called up to him. "I have something I want to give to you, but I can't from down here, and I'm not much good at climbing trees!"

She was trying to make a joke, trying to make light of the situation. Great, Hiei thought, now he was feeling guilty. His sister was making an idiot of herself and it was all because of him. He sighed again and then began jumping from branch to branch, bringing himself down to stand a few feet in front of her.

"Thank you," she said, smiling gently at him.

She climbed off of the contraption she had been riding on, laying it flat against the ground before moving to stand in front of him.

"I was really pleased when I found out that you are my brother," she said.

Hiei was surprised that she had chosen those words as her opening statement, but he supposed that she had to say as much. She could hardly stand in front of an S class demon and tell him that she hated him.

"I understand why you felt that you couldn't tell me yourself," she continued. "But I still wish that you had told me. Back when I was kidnapped by Tarukane, when you came and saved me, I was so happy to be free, but I felt so alone. I only went back to the ice village after that because I was so scared and so alone, and when I went back, everyone there treated me differently. If I had known that you were my brother then, I never would have gone back to the ice village. I would have just stayed here with my friends and with you."

Hiei nodded but still said nothing.

"I've always thought that you were very noble and strong and kind," she added.

"Hn, kind?" Hiei echoed, no longer able to stay silent. "I must have done a better job than I thought of distancing myself from you if that's what you think of me."

Yukina's face shifted slightly into a look he had never seen, one that looked entirely out of place on her: she was looking at him like she thought he was an idiot.

"We're alone out here," she said gently. "You don't have to pretend any more."

Hiei faltered slightly, but he decided against arguing the matter with her. Apparently she was happy thinking that he was "kind" so he decided to just let her continue to think that. She had seen enough of his actions over the years to know better, so at least he did not run the risk of ever disappointing her if she still felt that way.

"I hope you don't blame Rui for telling me," Yukina said, looking slightly worried then. "She was only trying to help. And I'm sorry that you returned to the ice village too late to meet our mother."

"I don't blame Rui," he assured her. "I blame that ferry girl for interfering."

"Botan?" she echoed. "But Botan only delivered the letters! And if she hadn't done that, she wouldn't have known how to prepare for helping me when I gave birth! Botan is a very kind friend to me… And to you too…"

"Hn."

Hiei opened out his scarf and pulled out the two hiruiseki hanging around his neck. He saw Yukina brighten at the sight of them and he lifted both stones over his head, holding them up in front of his face for long enough to distinguish which was which before separating one to his other hand.

"This one is yours," he said, holding it out towards his sister.

She started to reach for it but then stopped, her eyes wandering to the other stone in his other hand.

"They're identical," she said slowly, looking back and forth between the two stones. "How can you tell which one is mine? Not that it matters to me…"

"Mine is damaged," Hiei replied, lowering his eyes to avoid seeing the inevitably disappointed look his words would bring on. "I lost it when I was young and stupid. I eventually got it back, but it had been treated badly over the years it was lost to me. Yours is still as perfect as it was the day it was given to you. Which of course it would be."

Hiei swallowed hard, keeping his head down but lifting his eyes to watch Yukina for her response. Her attention had shifted to the stone dangling from his left hand, and as he watched her she gingerly took hold of the stone, placing it against the palm of her other hand and studying it carefully.

"It's on a piece of string," she muttered.

"The chain broke," Hiei explained.

"How did it break?" she asked, her eyes still on the stone.

Hiei's instinct was to ask her why it mattered, but he bit back his impetuousness and instead gave her an honest answer.

"I was in a swordfight," he confessed. "My opponent swung his blade to take my head off and I dodged back to avoid the blow. He missed me, but he severed the chain. The stone fell over a cliff and into a river. I searched for a long time, and I eventually got it back from Mukuro. She had been given it as payment for land, or something. Whoever had it before her had tried to repair the attachment, but the repairs have been crudely done and the stone itself has been scratched beyond repair."

Yukina nodded and then moved back to her own stone, a small smile appearing on her face as she eyed it over.

"My stone still has the original attachments and the original chain from the ice village," she said.

"Yes, the women of the ice village are very skilled at creating things," Hiei replied.

That was after all their motto in the ice village, he thought: women create and men destroy.

"Yes, our grandmother made this!" Yukina said brightly, pointing to the tortoiseshell accessory in her hair. "And one of the elders must have made this chain. It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Hiei sighed slowly. It was beautiful, and clearly nobody else in demon world could take the same level of care to create something so intricate and fine, since his stone was tied to a ratty old piece of string. It was quite befitting really, he thought. Not only was it something else that he had managed to break but it was quite representative: Yukina's stone was flawless and pure and his was broken and dirty.

"You've taken very good care of it," Yukina said, lifting the chain from his hand. "You've always worn it since the day I gave it to you?"

"Yes," he replied quietly.

"Through all those battles you've endured?"

He nodded.

"I like my stone and the chain that its on," she said thoughtfully. "Because when I look at it, I think about all the beautiful things the women in the ice village created. Those are my happy memories from the ice village. There were a lot of bad and wrong things about that place, but this, for me, will always be one of the good and nice things. I find it comforting to just remember the good things about that part of my life. You should do the same, brother."

Hiei tensed, his head jerking back on instinct as Yukina started to move her hands towards him. His entire body became stiff and his eyes warily watched hers as she moved her hands over the back of his head. She kept her eyes on his, smiling unwaveringly as she hung her own stone around his neck.

"I want you to keep my stone, because now you can have something to help you remember the good things about your past," she said.

Hiei grunted out a noise of confusion and then almost choked on nothing as Yukina then proceeded to take his stone from his hand and hang it round her own neck.

"I'm keeping this one though," she said, her smile widening. "Looking at this makes me much happier."

Hiei shook his head and his mouth moved but words failed him.

"This stone has such an interesting story," she explained. "It's been through so many exciting adventures. I'm not really the sort for going on adventures myself, so it's nice to have something like this to remind me of my brother and his adventures."

Hiei took a breath to answer her but he suddenly started to feel that horrible tightening sensation in his chest, and this time it was moving up through his throat and he did not trust himself to talk.

"Can I give you a hug now?" Yukina asked.

Hiei's eyes almost popped out of his head and stumbled back a step from her.

"You don't have to hug me back," she added. "But I'd really like it if you would let me hug you."

He cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure before he answered her.

"Fine," he managed to mumble out.

Yukina's smile widened and she moved forwards, sliding her arms around his waist. Hiei could not stop himself from tensing at the contact, turning his head to one side and keeping his arms out at the sides of his body – she had said that he did not have to hug her back, and that was just fine by him. She rested one cheek against his shoulder and snuggled into him, which in itself was a bizarre sensation.

"You're really warm!" she said.

Hiei tensed again. That warmth was why he had been cast out of the ice village.

"That was silly, of course you're warm," Yukina added. "You're an apparition of fire."

Hiei grunted out a half-hearted "hn".

"It's nice."

Hiei pulled a face at the top of Yukina's head but she merely cuddled him tighter, and before he knew what was happening he had put his arms around her. They stayed like that for several seconds, Hiei slowly relaxing as time passed. Eventually Yukina pulled back from him, and he actually found himself reluctant to let her go: but he did so without her noticing his hesitation.

"Everyone is at the temple for a little party," she explained. "But they will all be leaving again after tomorrow. Come and see me then. It will just be you, me and Megumi. You can stay for as long as you like, though I am going to spend Christmas with the Kuwabara family. I'll cook for you! I know that the food here in the human world isn't quite the same as it is in demon world, but I've become quite good at creating dishes that are almost as tasty as something you would find back home."

Hiei smiled in spite of himself.

"You don't have to come," Yukina added, moving over to pick up the wheeled contraption. "But it would make me very happy if you did."

She climbed onto the thing and gave him one last smile.

"Goodbye," she said.

He nodded in reply, watching her manoeuvre the strange thing away from him and back through the forest until she was out of sight. Once he was confident that she was gone he released the breath he had been holding and dropped into a sitting position on the ground. He felt more drained than he did after a training session with one of Mukuro's top men. Actually, he thought, it was an alarmingly familiar feeling: he was exhausted but also immensely satisfied. He let himself smile again. This was a good feeling.

This, he supposed, was the high he had been sacrificing in his fear of the low of being rejected by his sister.

Damn that ferry girl and her words.

* * *

"Meow!" Botan mewed.

Megumi laughed at her cat face again.

"See, the kid likes ugly!" Yusuke said, walking past Botan's back.

"Yusuke!" Botan growled.

She glared after him but her face softened as she spotted Yukina returning.

"Did you…?" she asked as Yukina sat down beside her.

Yukina nodded and handed her back the demon compass.

"That was a very clever device, Botan," she said. "I don't know how it works, but it found Hiei."

Botan nodded, accepting the compass.

"Did he talk to you?" she asked. "Is he… Is he alright?"

Yukina smiled.

"He's wonderful," she said.

"Good," Botan said.

Though she did not feel good, she thought. Yukina picked Megumi up and stood up to leave, pausing to look back over her shoulder at Botan.

"I kept my promise," she added. "I didn't open it."

Botan nodded, waiting until Yukina had left the room before holding the demon compass up in front of her eyes. She had put one of Hiei's tears into it, and apparently that had worked as well as a strand of hair in allowing the compass to locate his energy signal. She had made Yukina promise not to open the compass because she did not want to have to explain where she had acquired the stone, and she had trusted that Yukina would honour that promise: but apparently Yukina could be as good a liar as her brother when the mood took her, as the clasp on the front compartment of the compass had not been put back in place properly.

Botan slowly lowered the compass: she hoped Yukina had not shown Hiei the hiruiseki that was inside it.

* * *

Koenma sighed, slumping lower against the futon. He was becoming dizzy watching the three-feet tall toddler version of George Saotome thundering about Kurama's apartment. He tried to console himself by thinking that at least this now proved that the Fruit of Previous Life would work on George, as drinking the juice of the fruit picked in spirit world had reduced the ogre to a babbling, hyperactive toddler.

"Role reversal…" Koenma muttered to himself. "I'm the tall one and he's the rugrat."

Under any other circumstances, he might have found that highly amusing. As it was, he just wished the potion would wear off already so that he could move on to trying the next one. He was going to try to near identical fruit next and leave the pear for last – it looked so different he was worried that it might do something quite bizarre and unexpected, so he would eliminate the safer, more similar fruit from his investigation first.

He wondered what sort of differences the other two fruits would have on George.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Botan tries to tell Hiei something very important, Koenma and George complete their little mission and Botan's crimes against spirit world start to come back to haunt her. **Chapter 41: The Investigation**

 **A/N:** I think I slightly overdid the Hiei and Yukina moment, but I felt it was important to get across that Yukina is more stable than anyone gives her credit for.


	41. The Investigation

**Recap:** The gang all got together again, Hiei returned to the living world and Yukina confronted him about their relation – and Kuwabara finally understood it – and Koenma and George went to Kurama's apartment to check out his experiments with the FOPL.

* * *

 **Chapter 41: The Investigation**

It was still quite early by Hiei's standards, but through the window in the roof of the temple, he could see his sister putting her baby to bed. It was a pleasant sight, though unfortunately not entirely so, as that orange-haired fool was also there. Apparently that was something that was never going to change – wherever Yukina went, Kuwabara was going to follow. It was as though his sister had picked the worst member of the team to attach herself to. Hiei thought that even seeing his sister with Kurama or Yusuke would be easier to handle.

Well, maybe not Yusuke, he was a lecherous bastard.

And not Kurama, he was too soft and had too many human women running after him.

Maybe Kuwabara was not the worst option after all – what a depressing thought.

As Yukina finished tucking her daughter into her cot Hiei swiftly and silently leaned back out of view, sitting down onto the roof a short distance from the window.

"Does it warm your heart Hiei?"

Hiei slowly moved his eyes to the figure sat so easily at his side he was left wondering how long the sneaky bastard had been there, spying on him.

""Warm my heart"?" he repeated. "Hn, I don't know what you mean."

"You've been alone all of your life, haven't you?" Kurama asked.

"…I still don't understand…" Hiei slowly replied.

"I was always alone in my life, when I was still Youko Kurama," Kurama continued. "I maybe had the company of fellow gang members or bandits, but they were merely men I shared an agreement with. They were not companions, and deep down I was always alone. That all changed for me when I took this human body. I started to feel that even when I am alone, in a battle or during my training, I'm not really alone because I have so many people around me that I care about."

"Hn."

"Especially today, when most of those people are gathered together in one place. Days like these warm my heart."

Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Nothing warms my heart, fox," he flatly replied.

"Of course not," Kurama agreed. "I should just mind my own business, I suppose."

"Yes, you damn well should!"

"Nothing moves you at all."

"Nothing does!"

"You are always in complete control of your emotions."

"Hn, emotions are for the weak! The only time I come close to feeling an "emotion" is when I feel angry! And you're making me very angry right now!"

"I wonder why you're here."

"So do I!"

"On this roof, I mean. You could have watched Yukina with the aid of your jagan eye from many miles away, and yet you chose to come here and look through this window. Perhaps you were hoping to satisfy two needs in one: but you should know that Botan no longer sleeps in this room."

Hiei turned his head to glare at Kurama, who was, frustratingly, looking out over the horizon with that infuriating smile on his face.

"It warms my heart to be here with my friends, but for you it must be overwhelming," Kurama said with a sigh. "Your entire family is here today. Your sister is here, your niece is here, Kuwabara and his sister are here – and they are practically family to you since your niece sees Kuwabara as her own father – and Botan is here."

"You're pushing your luck, Kurama," Hiei growled.

"Don't be so cranky, Hiei. Socialise a little."

"Hn. You think I want anything to do with the idiots inside this temple?"

"What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that you will become weak if you get too close to anybody, Hiei?"

"You think you know me? Pathetic. You think I would be afraid of something so trivial? When I'm not even afraid to die?"

"My apologies."

"Hn."

Hiei hunched his shoulders and silently wondered why he had returned to the living world just to be insulted by the insolent fox demon at his side.

"You are of course a fearless warrior, Hiei."

Apparently the impudent bastard was not done with the insults.

"And yet you often seem concerned about how others perceive you. Does it bother you that I think you're afraid to feel?"

"No!" Hiei spat. "I don't care about that! I don't care about anything!"

"Of course you don't," Kurama smoothly replied. "You have dedicated your life to being the best at everything you have turned your hand to, and indeed you have always risen to any challenge that has faced you, and either bested it or become stronger from the experience."

"That's right!"

"Unfortunately though, you have spent so long concentrating on such matters, you have had to suppress your emotional issues altogether. As a result of that, you have moments like these, where you feel awkward and ill at ease because, in your heart, you are feeling something for someone."

"Damn you!"

"And this can often lead to you becoming frustrated and confused, and often violent and unpleasant towards others."

"Fuck off!"

"And so you've dealt with these confusing moments by not allowing yourself to become involved with other people on a deeper level: you suppress that warmth in your heart."

"This isn't funny, Kurama!"

"Perhaps you even resent the people around you who don't suppress their feelings, the people who can express that warmth and declare their true emotions openly. People like Kuwabara, perhaps."

"How dare you compare me to that fool? Just leave me alone!"

"Hiei, you are nothing more than a ticking time-bomb of emotion. I can only hope that I am not present when you finally detonate."

Hiei growled threateningly but Kurama's smile merely widened.

"You're not nearly as scary as you think you are," he added. "Especially not to those of us who know you well – your friends."

"Friends?" Hiei echoed, scowling at Kurama in disbelief. "I don't need friends. I would have nothing to say to a "friend". And all this "warm my heart" shit is nonsense too. My heart is a desolate world of emptiness. A barren and untrodden wasteland. Understand?"

Hiei's face twisted as Kurama actually started to laugh. At first he thought it might be a nervous, fearful reaction, but as he saw the corners of Kurama's mouth curling up in amusement, there was no mistaking the sound.

"Are you mocking me?" Hiei roared.

""A desolate world of emptiness"?" Kurama repeated. "Oh Hiei, you're so funny!"

"Go fuck yourself, Kurama!"

Kurama continued to laugh, apparently unaffected by Hiei's words. Really, he thought to himself, why was sitting listening to this bastard laugh at him any better than being stuck in that dirty little bar back in demon world?

"Oh, that's my cue to go," Kurama said suddenly, his laughter ceasing and his smile fading.

Hiei frowned at him questioningly but Kurama ignored him, rising to his feet and walking down the slope of the roof. Hiei watched the fox until he had jumped down to the ground and disappeared out of sight before realising that there was a shadow at his side where Kurama had been sitting. With a small groan of despair he lifted his head, his face changing when he found himself looking up into a pair of pink eyes.

"Hello Hiei."

Botan sat down at his side and smiled at him, though her eyes looked incredibly sad.

"I really wanted to tell you something when I saw you again today," she said. "But I've been thinking…"

"For you, that's a dangerous past-time," Hiei replied sarcastically.

"I know," she agreed without hesitation.

Had the joke gone over her head or was that her rebuttal, he wondered?

"I remembered that you prefer actions to words," she continued. "So instead of telling you what it is that I wanted to tell you, I'm going to show you."

"Oh splendid – I mean, oh fuck!"

Hiei started to sweat as a sly smile spread across the ferry girl's face and that familiar sparkle returned to her eyes. Well at least now one of them was happy.

"Ta-da!" she said, producing something from her coat pocket. "Do you know what this is?"

"I don't care what it is," Hiei flatly answered her.

"It's a hairbrush!" she said, as cheerfully as ever. "First of all, I'm going to brush your hair."

"No you're fucking well not!"

Hiei ducked out of her reach as she swiped the brush at his head.

"Come on now, mister grumpy boots!" she said.

"If you honestly think that I will sit here and let you use that thing on me like I'm some sort of pet, then you are sorely mistaken, woman!"

* * *

"How do you feel?" Koenma asked, studying George carefully.

"I feel like I wish you would have let me take a break before I took this second potion, Sir," the ogre replied.

"It's not taken effect yet," Koenma muttered. "Or maybe it won't have any effect. This was the fruit that was picked from the almost identical tree, yes?"

George nodded.

"Hm, interesting. Perhaps this was a failed experiment for Kurama."

Koenma walked out of the kitchen, taking himself back through the apartment to the bedroom. He studied the tree in there again finding once more that it did look remarkably like the original Tree of Previous Life. From what he could gather from reading a book in spirit world on the matter and from examining the stones inside the fruits Kurama had grown, both of the plants in Kurama's bedroom had been grown from stones taken from fruits from the original tree in spirit world. It was obvious that the tree immediately in front of him – the one most like the original – had been planted first, and Koenma could only conclude that it had been grown from the stone in the fruit Suzuka had given Kurama.

Koenma nodded his head and started to move towards the unruly second plant, only to halt mid-step as he heard an almighty roar emanating from the kitchen. He slowly lowered his foot to the ground and turned his head, watching curiously as George walked into the room behind him, once more reduced to a younger version of himself, barely three feet high. Well that confirmed that the near-identical fruits did work just the same as the originals from spirit world, Koenma decided.

"Ogre?" he asked, turning fully to face the miniature George. "How do you feel?"

He leaned over to bring his face level with the ogre's, silently wondering what that unusual glint in his eyes was indicative of. Koenma did not wonder long however, as he shortly found the ogre's fist connecting with his nose, and he was thrown across the room. He landed awkwardly against one of the glowing flowers, his nose throbbing and bleeding freely down his face. He tried to get up, but George was at his side, snarling ferociously, and before he could move away, the ogre had kicked him in the ribs, rolling him over.

Unaccustomed to such physical violence, Koenma did the only thing he knew how to: he screamed and tried to run away. His pacifier fell from his mouth and he barely cared where it landed. He ran around the room twice, throwing empty pots at the ogre to try to stall him, before running from the room altogether. He ran to the front door and began unlocking it, only to find himself colliding with it as George head-butted the back of one of his knees, sending him crashing forwards as his leg gave out beneath him.

"Ogre!" he cried out. "What is wrong with you?"

Something was definitely horribly wrong, Koenma decided, since usually the ogre meekly accepted any order he was given, and there had never been any hint of a violent streak in him before that day. Looking about himself desperately Koenma's eyes eventually locked onto the large framed picture of an Arctic fox hanging on the wall beside him. He quickly grabbed it down and broke it over George's head, stunning and confusing the violent little ogre long enough to escape out of the front door and slam it shut between them.

Koenma quickly locked the door behind him before resting his back against it and sliding down to sit on the ground. He pressed the heel of one hand to his bloody nose and ran the fingers of his other hand through his hair, lifting it back from his face. He was breathless and sweating and bloody – it was a ridiculous situation for the prince of the underworld to be in, especially when he had plenty of others who ought to be getting into such a state on his behalf.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Koenma tensed, turning his head slightly to see three girls loitering by the top of the stairs watching him curiously.

"We heard a lot of thumping and screaming," one girl said.

"I've not seen you around here before," another girl said.

"Are you a friend of Shuichi's?" the third girl asked.

Koenma grinned. He had been wondering how he would pass the time waiting for the ogre to return to normal, and passing it in the company of three attractive young women seemed about the best way he could think of doing it.

"Um, yes," he said, rising to his feet.

He winced slightly as his ribs ached, and his actions somehow brought all three of the girls to his side.

"Oh no, you're bleeding!" one said.

"Were you fighting in there?" another asked.

"Were you fighting with Shuichi?"

"You should come down to our apartment, we'll clean you up."

"Or maybe you could clean us up."

The girls started giggling and Koenma forced a laugh – though he had no idea what they were talking about.

"So how do you know Shuichi?" one girl asked him.

"I know Shuichi through my work," he replied. "I've known him for several years, we're very good friends."

"You're quite well spoken and kinda delicate…" another girl commented. "Are you just Shuichi's friend?"

"What are you trying to say?" another girl asked her.

"Well, he's kinda pretty… And Shuichi is kinda pretty, he's got great hair, he's got a great sense of style, he grows flowers, he's really close to his mother… Shuichi's gay, isn't he? Oh, I always knew it, it's so unfair! This guy is obviously Shuichi's boyfriend."

"I'm not Shuichi's boyfriend!" Koenma hurriedly corrected her.

"Really?" one girl asked. "Because you seem quite… Precious…"

"I'm just more of a diplomat than a warrior," Koenma replied, trying to look noble despite his bleeding nose and the fact that his injured ribs and leg were refusing to let him stand up straight.

"So you like girls?" one girl asked him.

"Absolutely!" he agreed.

"Prove it."

"Yeah, come downstairs and prove it to us."

One of the girls leaned forwards and whispered a suggestion into Koenma's ear that left him as confused as it did disgusted.

"What sort of person do you take me for?" he yelped defensively. "I would never do that sort of thing! How could you even suggest that?"

Koenma shook his head in disgust before unlocking the door to Kurama's apartment and going back inside. He locked the door behind himself, deciding that he was safer taking his chances with the berserk George than he was staying out in the hall with those girls.

* * *

Botan was staring. Her eyes were starting to dry out, because she could not even blink. It was unbelievable, and she could not look away – even blinking was more of a break than she could stand. She had one hand clamped over her mouth and the other was still holding the hairbrush.

"It's not fucking funny!" Hiei grumbled moodily. "I told you not to brush it!"

"Normally you never brush your hair, I must assume," she said, her voice muffled behind her hand and barely logical in her dazed state of mind.

"Fucking stupid…" he muttered.

Botan had not really noticed what had been happening when she had been brushing Hiei's hair – which he had let her do despite his initial protests – but as she had neared the end of her task she had started to notice that she could see a parting along the top of his head and she had then realised that brushing Hiei's hair had done something quite unusual to it: it had gone completely flat. It was no longer spiked up to a point by the back of his head, instead it was lying soft and smooth around the sides of his head – not too dissimilar to Yusuke's hair when he was not wearing hair-gel, Botan thought. It looked particularly odd on Hiei because the white streak that usually formed a star shape around his head was now nothing more than two lightning streaks down either side of his head.

"Oopsie…" she said quietly.

"Fucking oopsie…" Hiei mumbled. "I look like a fucking fool…"

"I thought you didn't care what you looked like," Botan responded, finally taking her hand from her mouth and allowing herself to start blinking again.

"I don't," he replied. "But I do when I look like a rent boy."

"A what?"

Hiei turned his head towards her, giving her a dark look – obviously whatever a rent boy was, it was something quite terrible, she concluded.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Hiei sighed and a look passed over his face that suggested he was about to call her stupid again or else just tell her what a waste of space she was: but his face soon neutralised and his eyes moved down to the hairbrush still in her hand.

"Was that the point you wanted to make?" he asked quietly. "All day I've had women trying to make me look like an idiot, and you've just finished it off by literally making me look stupid."

Botan hurriedly shook her head. It took a great effort to contain the urge to ask him what he had meant by having women make him look like an idiot all day – though she assumed that he was largely referring to the earlier pond incident – but she managed to stop herself and instead focused on the reason why she had approached him to begin with.

"Brush my hair," she said, holding the brush out towards him.

His eyes met hers again, and the look he gave her easily ranked with one of the worst he ever had, not helped in the least by his generally odd appearance with his hair all soft and limp about his head. Botan kept smiling at him confidently, but she could tell by the twitching of his upper lip that he was getting ready to snap at her.

"Hn, I'm not your slave," he eventually said. "Why would I even want to do something so ridiculous?"

"Just do it, Hiei," she insisted.

"No," he flatly replied.

"I have a good reason for this," she tried. "I'm trying to show you something, but I can't show you if you don't do this part."

"This is stupid."

"You're stupid."

Hiei's eyes doubled in size in his shock at her words, but he quickly recovered his composure and began sneering at Botan again.

"What did you just say?" he growled.

"I said you're stupid," she said. "I could just talk to a sensible person, but I've learned that you don't understand that like a clever person would, rather you have to be shown everything like a stupid person does."

"Are you trying to infuriate me?"

"Just shut-up and brush my hair."

"No way am I–"

"Unless you're too scared."

Hiei growled, his lips slowly peeling back from his teeth. Botan kept her bright smile in place and kept the brush held out towards him.

"I'm not scared of anything, I just dislike foolish, pointless games!" he ground out.

"This isn't a pointless game," she replied.

He made to answer her but apparently changed his mind as his face changed and he suddenly snatched the hairbrush from her hand.

"This had better prove to be a beneficial exercise," he warned her quietly.

"It will!" she promised, crawling over to sit in front of him.

Botan sat perfectly still, ignoring the sound of Hiei muttering out curses behind her – or at least, she thought they were curses because he sounded angry, but most of the words he was using she had never even heard before and could guess at the true meaning of.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked him. "If you've never used a hairbrush before maybe–"

"If an idiot like Kuwabara can do this then so can I!" he replied.

Botan closed her eyes and focused on staying relaxed. She was expecting to get hurt, but she did not want Hiei to know that, so she tried her best to stop her body from tightening up. It was important that he understood that she trusted him if she was to make her point to him. She was surprised when the brush touched her head gently and she found it easier to relax then – maybe this was going to be easier than she had thought.

"Ow!" she cried out involuntarily when Hiei pulled downwards far too harshly.

He spat out a few curses but Botan turned her head to smile over her shoulder at him.

"You need to be gentle," she reminded him.

He grumbled out a few more nasty suggestions, but Botan ignored them, turning her head around again. After a few seconds of complaining he eventually started again, this time moving slower and stopping when he felt the brush catch in her hair. Botan smiled to herself – there was hope for him yet.

* * *

By the time Koenma returned to Kurama's apartment block it was almost dark outside. After being chased and battered by a juvenile ogre for the best part of fifteen minutes and then spending more than twice as long smacking the fridge door off of the ogre's head and then flushing the toilet over his head a few times he had felt quite worn out. The ogre had mentioned food and that had sounded like a good idea, so Koenma had locked the ogre into the apartment and gone into the city to buy himself a meal at the nearest quality restaurant he could find. It had been a nice break, but he was still aching all over from dealing with the violent ogre child, and he was more than a little apprehensive about testing that third fruit – another fifteen minutes alone with a violent ogre would probably be the death of him.

Koenma managed to get halfway up the first set of stairs before he was stopped by a pair of voices calling after him from the ground floor. He cringed slightly at the realisation that it was two of those three girls he had met earlier – he wondered how Kurama coped with such rowdy neighbours, surely they were difficult to deal with, even for a soul as patient as Kurama's – and unfortunately it seemed he would be unable to avoid speaking to them as they were running after him, and with his injuries, he was not fit enough to out-run them.

"Hey there!" one of them called after him.

He stopped and turned around smiling as politely as he could manage to as they caught up to him.

"We're really sorry about our friend earlier, if she was really pushy with you?" one girl said.

"Oh, that's okay," Koenma assured her.

"What exactly did she say to you, anyway?" the other girl asked.

"She said she wanted to sit on my face," Koenma replied. "Which I thought was quite strange, but then she said she wanted me to eat her cat. I don't know what sort of cult she's in, but where I come from, it's considered strange to eat a domestic pet."

The two girls turned to each other, both looking slightly confused.

"You understand why I was so horrified," Koenma added.

"Are you sure that she said cat?" one girl asked him. "And not pussy?"

"What difference does it make?" he asked.

The girls looked at each other again, apparently still confused. Maybe they thought that eating a domestic pet was acceptable too – now Koenma really did feel sorry for Kurama.

"Um…" one girl started. "We're sorry anyway. Any friend of Shuichi's is a friend of ours."

"Yeah," the other girl agreed. "Even that really rude guy that comes here all the time and can't figure out how the intercom works."

"Oh yeah! Even him!"

Koenma's face slowly dropped as an idea started to formulate in the back of his mind.

"Really rude guy?" he asked slowly. "Is he quite short, with black spiked hair?"

"Yeah, do you know him too?" one girl asked.

"I think his name's Hiro," the other girl said.

"Hiei?" Koenma asked.

"That's it!"

Koenma nodded slowly. He had wondered if Hiei visited Kurama at his apartment, and obviously he did, and quite regularly for the girls to have noticed him and to know his name. He was not sure if that made the situation better or worse.

"So Hiei comes here a lot?" Koenma asked, trying to sound casual.

"Oh yeah!" one girl agreed. "Sometimes he stays here for a few days at a time."

"One time I saw him jumping out of Shuichi's living room window!" the other girl said.

"You did not!" her friend argued.

"I did too! He jumped out, and then he just like vanished!"

"No way!"

The girls began to argue the point, which was probably a good thing, Koenma thought, since his initial reaction had been shock and anger upon hearing that Hiei was coming to the living world and acting oddly in front of normal humans, drawing unnecessary attention to himself.

"Oh, and then there's Hana too!" one of the girls said suddenly.

Koenma frowned at her – who was Hana?

"Shuichi's girlfriend," the other girl said. "Have you met her? She's really weird. She has blue hair and pink eyes!"

"And she dresses like she's on her way to a culture festival for the colour-blind. The last time we saw her, she was wearing a pink kimono with red sandals."

Koenma's face slowly softened – apparently Hana was Botan.

"Does Hana come here often?" he asked the girls.

"We've only seen her once," one girl said. "But we hear Shuichi calling for her all the time."

"Maybe she comes in through the window," the other girl suggested. "Since that Hiei guy comes and goes from the window, you know?"

"He does not come and go from the window! That's impossible!"

"He does too!"

"Apart from Hiei and "Hana"," Koenma interrupted them. "Does Shuichi ever get any other visitors?"

The girls both shook their heads.

"Well, sometimes his parents come by," one girl said. "But otherwise it's just him and Hiei or him and Hana. I don't even think Hiei and Hana visit him at the same time ever."

Koenma nodded, their words holding far more significance for him than they could ever possibly imagine.

"Excuse me, ladies," he eventually said. "We'll talk some other time."

"Oh, okay!"

"Goodbye!"

Koenma smiled briefly at them before continuing back to Kurama's apartment as fast as he could with his injuries. He quickly unlocked the door and hurried inside, locking himself in and moving through to the kitchen, only stopping when he noticed the ogre standing in the middle of the kitchen eating a block of tofu straight from the packet. He arched his eyebrows expectantly and the ogre slowly placed the half-eaten tofu down onto the counter, trying his best to look remorseful.

"I was hungry, Sir," he said.

"Well let's not waste any more time here," Koenma shortly replied. "Drink that last glass and let's see what it does."

"…Can I finish eating first?"

"Drink the fruit juice, it's nutritious enough!"

George made a whining sound that made him sound like the last puppy in a pet shop window before he eventually carried out Koenma's order. Koenma waited until the ogre had finished drinking before taking himself to the bathroom and locking himself in for protection: he was not prepared to be battered about like a rag doll again.

Sitting on the edge of the bath, Koenma wondered if this last fruit would make George violent again. Maybe it would have a completely different effect on him, especially since it had grown to look nothing like the original fruit. Perhaps it was an improved hybrid that Kurama had created, he mused. When he did not hear anything getting broken or any primal screaming, Koenma began to think that this fruit might be alright after all.

"Ogre?" he called out, rising to his feet and approaching the door.

He pressed an ear to the bathroom door, listening carefully to try to determine where the ogre was. He could hear footsteps moving about, but they were surprisingly light, which, he decided, must be a good sign. He started to smile and unlocked the door, opening it to a thin crack to look out into the hallway. He could not see any sign of George in the hall and so he opened the door wider, daring to creep out of the bathroom altogether.

Koenma edged his way along to the living room door, peering into the room beyond. He frowned as he saw that the ogre had reverted back to his child form, but he was strangely interested in the stereo. Koenma took two steps into the room before stopping as music started to play and the ogre turned around to face him, smiling at him in a most disturbing manner.

"Is…" Koenma began nervously. "Is that Barry White you're listening to?"

* * *

Hiei was not really sure when playing the woman's stupid game had changed from something tedious into something addictive and hypnotic, but he could feel himself steadily losing control as he passed the brush through her hair again and again, and he assumed that he must have been slowly leaning closer to her throughout his task as he suddenly found his face so close to the back of her head that his breath was parting her hair. He tried to stop himself but found that he could not: his breathing was quickening and that was only making it harder for him to hold himself back. Every time the brush moved through her hair it released more of that sweet, sweet scent of the ferry girl and every time he inhaled he swallowed more of it in, and he actually thought that he might start dribbling soon.

It had been a long time since he had partaken in her unique odour, but worryingly it was every bit as enticing and provocative to his senses as it always had been – maybe even more so.

"Hiei…?" she asked quietly.

"Hn?" he grunted.

"Are you finished?" she asked.

Hiei mumbled out something that might have been an answer before dropping the brush at his side and moving closer to touch the tip of his nose to back of Botan's head. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, feeling almost intoxicated.

"…What are you doing…?" she asked quietly.

"Your hair…" he muttered incoherently. "Your hair smells like fresh berries from the forests around this temple and the flowers that grow on the hillside."

"…That was very specific. I thought you hated this world and everything in it. Why then do you know what those things smells like?"

"Because they smell like you."

Hiei moved his head closer, moving his hands to the back of her neck. In one hand he swept her hair aside and with the other he pulled at her clothing, exposing her neck to his view. He opened his mouth to bite down on her but she slid forwards out of his reach and his jaws snapped together in a most unsatisfactory manner that left him growling in frustration.

"I think I proved my point," she said, picking up her hairbrush and rising to her feet. "What you did here required patience, control and a gentle touch."

Hiei slowly narrowed his eyes at her. Apparently she thought that, after softening his hair, she had managed to soften his entire being.

"If you can do this without hurting me, there's nothing else you can't do," she added. "I know you think that you're mister tough guy who hurts everybody and breaks everything, but you can control yourself and be gentle with things. If you can brush my hair without hurting me, there's no reason why you can't hold your sister's baby."

Hiei's face twisted angrily and Botan merely smiled back at him.

"If I'd told you that, you wouldn't have listened," she said. "But now that I've shown you, you understand, don't you?"

"Stop talking to me like I'm stupid!" Hiei snapped.

"Alrighty then," she said with a shrug. "I'm going inside now. You should join us. It would be nice."

She turned her back on him and started to walk down the slope of the roof. Hiei leapt to his feet with a snarl.

"You're going nowhere!" he snapped, sprinting after her.

He caught up to her in less than a second, grabbing his arms around her waist from behind and dropping back down into a sitting position, pulling her down to sit sideways across his lap. She immediately started trying to stand up again, her face turning red and her eyes purposefully avoiding his. He watched her struggles until they stopped being amusing to him and started just being annoying.

"You can't escape," he told her.

She sighed and relented, but turned her head from him, her hair brushing against his face and once more filling his senses with that smell that awoke urges within him that were becoming harder and harder to suppress.

"You need to explain yourself," he said, trying to sound stern and trying to stay on topic. "You were in demon world 99 years ago and you know the women of the ice village. Did they hire you to find me?"

"What?" Botan echoed, turning around to face him.

Hiei faltered slightly. Having the back of her head directly in front of his face had been difficult but suddenly having her face directly in front of his, her nose almost touching his, her lips dangerously close to his, was positively torturous.

"Did they hire you?" he ground out, trying his best to get the answer he needed.

"What?" she said again.

It was infuriating. He had thought a lot about what he had found out about Botan being the one to kidnap him as a child and her intimate knowledge of the location of the ice village and of that bitch, Rui. The only logical conclusion he had been able to come to was that Rui had, out of guilt, hired Botan to go and find him and bring him back to his mother. He had not realised that the ice maidens had any connections to spirit world, but if they did, it certainly explained a lot – like how Koenma had known that Yukina was his sister when she had been kidnapped.

"Did the bitches of the ice village hire you to recover me after they cast me out?" he asked. "Is that why you were there?"

"Um…"

She tilted her head back and rolled her eyes upwards as though she needed to think to remember something so significant. Hiei wanted to be annoyed, but in tilting her chin at that angle, she had inadvertently moved her lips even closer to his and he was too busy concentrating on stopping himself from closing the marginal gap between them to find the energy to be angry with her.

"Does Koenma know about your little connection to the ice village?" he managed to ask.

He than started to feel confused more than anything else as she suddenly started to blush and he distinctly felt her tense in his arms. Maybe there was a lot more going on than he had originally thought – but what?

"You know, it's not often that everybody gets a chance to have a little party like this," she said, lowering her eyes to his again. "We should go inside and have some fun with our friends!"

"Answer me," he insisted.

"Let's go inside."

"Not until you explain yourself."

Hiei watched her chew on her lip and avoid his eyes. She was becoming increasingly agitated, which was only making him all the more suspicious: just what was her connection to the ice village? She made a small moan of discomfort and wriggled slightly in his hold, doing something that Hiei could only assume was a mistake: she ground one hip over his groin. He groaned against his own will and before he had even finished making the noise one of his hands had found its way to the back of her head and his lips were on hers.

To his relief, she did not struggle or complain, instead returning his kiss with possibly even more enthusiasm than he had started it with. She wound one arm around his back and the other around his shoulders, and before long they were kissing quite passionately, locked together in an almost fierce embrace. All thoughts of the ice village, Botan being in demon world in the past and anything else left Hiei's mind in favour of just one clear thought: he was going to have her right there, right then.

It would end the addiction, he told himself.

And it would ease that pain he had been feeling in his chest for so long – already he could feel it lessening.

The moment felt too good to be true, and Hiei supposed that he should have realised that anything that ever seems to be too good to be true usually is: the sound of someone loudly, forcefully and sarcastically clearing their throat ended the bliss. Hiei opened his eyes and moved them to the source of the sound, his lips still touching Botan's: though he was surprised that she had not pulled back from him when he saw who had joined them on the roof.

Koenma was standing quite close to them, his arms folded, and a less than impressed look on his face: though his expression was nothing to that of the dark-haired ferry girl and the blue ogre behind him, both of whom looked both terrified and repulsed by what they saw.

Hiei shifted his eyes to Botan, seeing that her eyes were open and she was looking at her boss. But, much to his disbelief, she closed them again and carried on kissing him with as much abandon as she had been doing before the three spirits had arrived on the rooftop.

Koenma loudly cleared his throat again, but this time Botan did not respond. Hiei of course did not really care what anyone from spirit world thought about him or his actions, but it was confusing, surprising and slightly disturbing that Botan no longer cared either.

"Botan!" Koenma blurted out.

She pulled her lips from Hiei, her eyes lingering on his for a moment before she turned her attention to her boss.

"Lord Koenma?" she said.

"Botan," Koenma replied. "Is everyone else inside?"

"Yes Sir," she said. "You should go on in and join them. I'll be down soon."

Hiei started to protest when Botan moved towards him again but his voice was cut off by her lips crashing against his.

"Botan!" Koenma yelled impatiently.

Botan again pulled back from Hiei and looked up at her boss.

"Inside, Botan!" he growled. "Now!"

She started to pull a face at him but apparently he was in no mood for arguing the point.

"That's an order, Botan," he added.

Botan reluctantly slid her arms from around Hiei and rose to her feet. She took one step towards her boss before gasping and clapping both hands over her mouth.

"Oh my goodness, Sir!" she squealed. "What happened to you?"

"I was working on a little investigation," he flatly replied. "And I need to discuss my findings with everyone. So just get inside so that I can get this over with. You too, Hiei."

Hiei stood up at the mention of his name, but he hesitated to move.

"I don't take orders from you," he said.

"This is a very important matter," Koenma replied. "And it definitely concerns you. Please, I only want to have to explain myself once, so let's all go inside."

Hiei opened his mouth to argue his point but stopped as he felt Botan take hold of one of his hands. He turned to her and she smiled nervously at him, the concern behind her eyes acting as some kind of motivation as he found himself following her off of the roof.

* * *

Botan was completely clueless as to what was going on, but she felt scared. Ayame looked like she might have a heart attack at any moment, and Koenma and George looked like they had been through three rounds of a demon world tournament. She looked around the room again, seeing that everyone was present: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Keiko, Shizuru, Yukina and herself and the spirit world team – apparently Megumi was in bed asleep.

"I'm very sorry to do this right now," Koenma began.

"Party crasher!" Yusuke called to him.

A few others around the room laughed but Koenma did not even look in Yusuke's direction.

"But this is a very urgent matter," he continued. "I have long suspected that something has been amiss, and after a little research on my part, tonight I carried out a full investigation, and it seems that the situation is even worse than I had imagined."

He reached a hand into his pocket and retrieved a shiny metal object, holding it up in front of his face.

"Can anyone tell me what this is?" he asked.

"It's a key, dumbass!" Yusuke replied.

"It's a key to my apartment," Kurama said quietly.

"Correct," Koenma answered him. "I got this from Botan."

Botan tensed, glancing back and forth as she found both Kurama and Hiei glaring at her angrily.

"Ogre, the bag," Koenma said quietly.

George passed a rucksack to Koenma and he pulled it open, reaching a hand inside. When he pulled his hand out again Botan felt her heart skip a beat before it leapt into her throat and started to race: he was holding a Fruit of Previous Life. She gulped noisily, watching him place it onto a nearby table before pulling out another, almost identical fruit from the bag and placing it next to the first. When he pulled out a pinkish pear-shaped fruit Botan thought she might collapse.

"This item came from spirit world," he explained, pointing to the first fruit. "And these two came from Kurama's apartment."

"You had no right to enter my home without my permission," Kurama said.

Kurama's voice sounded surprisingly calm to Botan's ears, especially as she herself was starting to sweat and shake.

"True," Koenma replied. "But it's just as well that I did. I wondered how you had managed to transform into your full demon form again during the last demon world tournament, and now I know why. Originally, you were given one juiced Fruit of Previous Life, including the stone, from Suzuka. You must have planted that stone and grown it into the tree that lives in your apartment. There is no specific law in spirit world against what you did – despite the fact that you went to great lengths to complete your project, including developing flowers that can emit the right sort of light to optimise the plant's growth. What you have done is extremely dangerous though. The Tree of Previous Life grows in one of the most remote locations of spirit world. It is virtually inaccessible, and for very good reason. The consequences of a second tree growing here in the living world could be astronomical. If I had discovered anyone else had done this, I would have had them arrested and sentenced most severely. But, taking into account your services to spirit world thus far, I am willing to overlook this little mishap."

Botan quietly sighed in relief.

"This, however," Koenma said, picking up the fruit from Botan's tree. "Is another matter entirely."

Botan tensed again.

"The plant that this fruit came from was clearly not grown by you, Kurama," Koenma continued. "Furthermore, it was grown from a stone taken from a fruit from the original tree in spirit world, and it was grown in the sacred water from spirit world. This can only mean that someone stole sacred water and a fruit from spirit world, and that is a very serious crime."

Botan leaned back against the wall to stop herself from falling over.

"I tested the fruits you cultivated," Koenma said. "They both have very serious side effects on anyone who consumes them. The tree you have grown with your energy – and I know that you grew the first tree because only someone as skilled at plant care as you could have raised a tree so close to the original – has produced fruits laced with demon energy that work in regressing the user back, but also make the user extremely violent. In the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous. But arguably the fruits from the other, strange-looking, tree are even more dangerous."

Botan silently wondered how Koenma knew what the fruits did – they would not have any effect on him, so who had he tested them on?

"This fruit works in that it regresses the user back through their life," Koenma said. "But it also turns them into something quite disturbing. I assume you already know that though, Kurama?"

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly but said nothing.

"You have a lot of young women in your apartment block," Koenma continued. "I can't let you keep that plant alive. I barely managed to fight off the ogre after he consumed one of these fruits, I can't imagine how those girls could defend themselves from an S class demon in a similar state."

"I understand," Kurama replied.

"I'm not finished," Koenma said. "I know, by the very nature of the plant this fruit came from, that it was not grown with your energy. And I know that you did not steal the necessary items from spirit world to create it. You had an accomplice in this crime. I need you to tell me who it was."

"You intend to incriminate someone else for something you found in my apartment?" Kurama asked.

"You misunderstand," Koenma replied. "I intend to incriminate both you and your accomplice: but if you tell me now who did this for you, I will consider a reduced sentence for you both."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you leave me with no other choice."

Kurama narrowed his eyes further but said no more. Yusuke stood up abruptly, his face scrunched up in confusion and anger.

"Wait just a minute!" he said. "You're not seriously here to arrest Kurama, are you?"

"This is serious, Yusuke," Koenma replied. "These items don't belong in this realm, and even if Kurama is the only one using them, they still present a great danger. The side effects of using these fruits are extreme and quite terrible."

"This is my crime," Kurama said smoothly.

"If you won't tell me who your accomplice is, I will have to take measures to find out for myself," Koenma replied. "I suspect that I already know who it is, and that the guilty party is currently in this room. But I have a method of determining that for certain."

Botan frowned curiously: how exactly could Koenma possibly know that it was her energy that had grown the second fruit and how could he prove it? Was he bluffing to force a confession from Kurama?

"Alright then," Koenma said with a small sigh.

He reached a hand into the rucksack again and produced a demon compass.

"This device can sense demon and spirit energy," he explained. "It has a compartment in the back where we place a DNA sample from the soul we seek."

Koenma popped open the compass and laid it down on the table. He then picked up Kurama's apartment key and cut a chunk out of Botan's fruit.

"This," he said, holding up the small segment of fruit. "Will contain a small amount of the spirit energy that was used to grow it. If I put it into the compass, it will point me towards whoever did this."

Botan whimpered quietly as Koenma placed the fruit into the compass and she caught Kurama casting her a brief warning glance and giving her a slight shake of his head. Koenma snapped the compass shut and it immediately started beeping noisily.

"Well what do you know?" Koenma said, looking across the room at Kurama. "It seems that my assumptions were correct. The accomplice is in this room."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** For every action, there is a reaction: Botan finds out (the hard way) that using The Stolen Moment did have consequences for her as she finds herself overcome with guilt and ultimately ends up in the last and worst place she could have imagined. **Chapter 42: The Accomplice**


	42. The Accomplice

**Recap:** Hiei and Kurama had a talk, Botan tried to show Hiei that he can be gentle (whilst inadvertently turning him into good-Suikotsu), Koenma crashed the party looking to arrest the culprit behind the FOPL plants in Kurama's apartment and Botan finally proved that she's no longer "ashamed" to be seen with Hiei. It was a lo-ong chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 42: The Accomplice**

"Well what do you know?" Koenma said, looking across the room at Kurama. "It seems that my assumptions were correct. The accomplice is in this room."

He picked up the compass but before he had fully raised his hand the device shattered in his grip. Several others around the room gasped and Botan yelped as she saw what had happened: Kurama had broken the device with his rose whip, but his aim had not quite been true and the thorns had left two gashes in Koenma's hand that were bleeding freely.

This was bad and rapidly becoming worse, she thought darkly.

"You've just added attacking King Enma's son to your list of charges, you realise?" Koenma asked quietly, lifting his eyes to Kurama.

Kurama quietly retracted his rose whip, changing it back into a seemingly harmless rose.

"Will you come peacefully, or do I need to employ the assistance of the SDF?" Koenma asked.

"What?" Yusuke echoed. "Hey! This is getting beyond a joke!"

"I'll come peacefully," Kurama replied.

"Good," Koenma said with a nod. "I'll bear that in mind when I'm passing judgement."

He produced a set of spirit world handcuffs from his rucksack and Kurama moved towards him, holding out his hands in willing submission. As Koenma moved forwards to lock the handcuffs onto Kurama, Botan suddenly snapped.

"No!" she yelled, leaping towards them.

Koenma and Kurama both turned to her, one in surprise the other to give her a warning glare.

"Please, stop!" she begged. "You-you've got it all wrong, Lord Koenma Sir!"

Koenma sighed and locked the handcuffs into place.

"Ayame, would you please take Kurama back to spirit world?" he said, turning to Ayame.

Ayame looked less than pleased with the order but obligingly herded Kurama from the room.

"Lord Koenma!" Botan yelled. "You're not listening to me!"

"Botan, please," he said, holding up a hand. "I thought that you might do this. I've told you before: you're dedication and loyalty to the spirit detective team is unrivalled and admirable, but you can't let it cloud your good sense and better judgement. This wasn't an easy decision for me, Kurama has done many good things for spirit world and the living world, but this can't go on. Those fruits he has grown do terrible things, and he must have used them himself – it's a wonder to me that he did spare Hiei's life in the demon world tournament after having witnessed first hand the effect those fruits have."

"But Sir, you don't understand!" she argued. "Kurama didn't do anything wrong!"

"Botan! How can you say that? Don't you understand? He stole a powerful item and sacred water from spirit world and he employed the services of another being to help him grow a tree that produces fruit that turns anyone who eats them into… A terrible monster that could cause infinite harm to others, and he lives in a building filled with young women: it's too much of a risk. I'm detaining Kurama so that I can send some experts in to his apartment to destroy every trace of those plants to stop this from happening again, and after that I'm going to face the difficult decision of deciding how to deal with this. No matter how much good Kurama has done for us, stealing from spirit world is a very serious crime, Botan! I shouldn't need to tell you that!"

"But…"

Koenma touched a hand to her shoulder.

"I know this is difficult for you," he said gently. "And unfortunately it's about to get even harder."

Botan's eyes widened and she searched her boss's eyes for any hint of a joke, only feeling worse when she failed to find the remotest hint that he was anything but serious.

"I know that Kurama had an accomplice, and for the good of spirit world and the living world alike, I need to find who that was," he continued. "And from my little investigation earlier today, I've narrowed it down to just two people."

Botan gulped nervously.

"From what Kurama's neighbours have told me, he only ever received two visitors outside of his mother and step-father," Koenma said. "One was you, the other was Hiei."

"What?" Yusuke asked.

"Botan, did you know that Kurama was growing these plants in his apartment?" Koenma asked, ignoring Yusuke.

"I…"

Botan could not bring herself to answer him. Of course she knew – she was responsible for the second plant being there! She knew that she ought to confess, and hopefully if she did, Kurama would be spared. But she also knew that if she did admit to stealing from spirit world and creating a plant that bore fruit that turned people into sex maniacs she was likely to be punished even worse than Kurama, since she, as a spirit of spirit world, had no excuse for such behaviour.

"I knew about it," Hiei said.

Koenma and Botan both turned to him and he smirked confidently.

"Kurama told me all about it," he said. "I saw the plants and he told me why he was doing it. He swore me to secrecy, and he also told me he would never tell anyone else. I seriously doubt he would have told a ferry girl. She would have reported him instantly if he had."

"You should have reported him instantly too, Hiei," Koenma told him.

"Hn. Why would I?" Hiei responded. "I despise spirit world. I also trust Kurama. I don't see what the problem is."

"You realise that Kurama used those fruits to help him defeat you in the demon world tournament?"

"Of course. I relished the challenge of facing him at his full power. I wanted him to use them."

Koenma took his hand from Botan's shoulder and took three steps towards Hiei.

"Are you admitting to assisting Kurama with his experiments?" he asked quietly.

Hiei said nothing but his smirk widened.

"Think carefully about this, Hiei," Koenma warned him. "You already have a criminal record with spirit world, and you would not be granted the same sympathetic judgement that Kurama will."

Hiei still said nothing.

"In that case, I'm going to have to ask you to come to spirit world," Koenma said. "I'm not arresting you formally, but I will need to take a formal statement from you."

"Fine," Hiei said with a shrug.

"Hey, this is getting stupid!" Yusuke protested.

"I agree!" Botan added.

"Botan, will you please take Hiei to spirit world?" Koenma said, turning to her.

Botan's jaw dropped in disbelief, but the look on Koenma's face warned her not to argue the point.

"Unless you have anything else you want to tell me?" he asked.

"Hn, don't be ridiculous," Hiei said before Botan could reply. "You said yourself those fruits are powerful and dangerous: how could that woman possibly have had anything to do with their creation?"

Koenma nodded his agreement, but Botan felt no better. Maybe she was no longer in trouble, but Kurama had been arrested and now Hiei was being taken in under suspicion. This was ridiculous: Hiei was completely innocent, and the second plant was only present because of her. It was wrong that Kurama had asked her to help him but she could easily have refused. And, worst of all, she had only agreed to help him to cover up her blunder with The Stolen Moment, another item she had stolen from spirit world and abused for her own needs.

"Botan?" Koenma said.

She glanced back and forth between Koenma and Hiei before taking a long look around the others in the room, all of who looked shocked into silence.

"I'm coming too," Yusuke offered.

"This doesn't concern you, Yusuke," Koenma told him.

"I want to be a character witness for Kurama and Hiei," he replied.

Koenma quirked an eyebrow in apparent amusement and surprise at the intelligence of Yusuke's remark.

"Well…" he said slowly. "Maybe we can discuss that first. Botan, would you please go on ahead and take Hiei to spirit world for me?"

Botan did not move, Koenma's request barely registering in her mind. She could not let Kurama go to prison for his crime, but for some reason she could not bring herself to admit the truth to Koenma.

"Hurry up, this is getting boring," Hiei told her.

She nodded numbly and started towards the door, looking around the others one last time before walking out of the room altogether.

"This is terrible…" she whispered faintly as she walked towards the front door.

"Hn, it's just another bureaucratic waste of time typical of spirit world," Hiei said as he joined her at her side.

"But…"

As they stepped outside the cold air made Botan feel faint again. What would happen to her if the truth came out about her involvement in Kurama's experiments? Koenma seemed even more serious about it than she had ever imagined that he would be if he found out the truth, and if he was being so severe towards a demon for such a crime, surely he would only view a ferry girl's involvement as far worse.

"Hiei," she said, turning to Hiei.

"What?" he responded, looking completely unaffected by the whole affair.

"Kurama… What are we going to do?"

Hiei's face changed slightly and Botan was relieved to see that he actually looked angry: maybe finally he was seeing the situation for what it was.

"Don't even think about it, woman," he said quietly.

Botan's face twisted in confusion: had he just threatened her?

"Wh-what do you mean?" she asked.

"I know what you're thinking, and I'm telling you not to do it," he replied.

"Did you read my mind?" she asked, cringing at the very thought of Hiei knowing the truth about her crimes against spirit world.

"I don't need to," he said, his eyes moving from hers and a slightly disgusted look spreading over his face, as though he had just gotten an unpleasant taste in his mouth. "You're so concerned about Kurama that you're considering doing something irrational and stupid to spare him. I know that you know about his experiments with those plants, but if you admit to that, you will put yourself in great danger."

"Why did you admit to knowing about the experiments then? You heard what Lord Koenma said: you already have a criminal record, you won't be looked upon favourably."

"He's looking for an accomplice to pin this crime on, and obviously only so that he can excuse sparing Kurama. You heard what the brat said: it's either you or me."

Hiei met Botan's eyes again and she was once more overcome with the gravity of the situation.

"Y-you or me?" she repeated quietly.

"You or me, Botan," he replied.

Botan started to shake her head but Hiei merely smirked back at her.

"You'd better take us to spirit world now," he suggested.

Botan summoned her oar and sat onto it, mainly to stop herself from collapsing on the ground. Hiei leapt up to stand on the blade, his smirk still confidently in place. She wondered if it was an act or if he genuinely cared so little about the potential fate he faced.

* * *

"One demon rose," a green ogre said.

"One demon rose," Ayame confirmed, writing it down onto a pad of paper.

"One door key," the ogre said.

"One door key," Ayame said.

"One trinket box, small, containing… Seven brown seeds and one purple one."

"One small trinket box containing seven brown seeds and one purple one."

"Two demon bamboo shoots."

"Two demon bamboo shoots."

"Three blades of demon grass."

"Three blades of demon grass."

"Assorted loose seeds… Looks like 37 seeds of about 29 different varieties."

"37 loose seeds of 29 different varieties."

"One money clip, contains 270,000 Yen."

"One money clip containing 270,000 Yen."

"One coin purse, contains 647 Yen."

"One coin purse containing 647 Yen."

"One return train ticket to Kyoto city."

"One return train ticket to Kyoto city."

"One Kyoto University student ID card."

"One Kyoto University student ID card."

"One annual pass for Kyoto Botanical Garden, expired."

"One expired annual pass for Kyoto Botanical Garden."

"One packet of Kiss Mint gum, Passion Fruits flavour, three pieces remaining."

"One packets of Kiss Mint gum, Passion Fruit flavour, three pieces remaining."

"One silver cellular phone… Looks complicated…"

"One complicated silver cellular phone."

"Four Christmas cards, all addressed to Kurama."

"Four Christmas cards addressed to Kurama."

"One matching set of brown cashmere gloves and scarf."

"What? Oh come on! Now you're just taking the piss!"

Ayame and the ogre both turned, glaring in outrage at Yusuke.

"Seriously?" he asked them. "All of that stuff?"

Ayame and the ogre turned back to each other, exchanging looks of strained patience before continuing.

"One matching set of brown cashmere gloves and scarf," Ayame said tightly.

"That's everything," the ogre replied, glancing at Yusuke. "We're going to have to ask you to empty your pockets as well, Kurama."

Kurama nodded his understanding before turning his pants' pockets inside-out to show that they were empty before doing the same with his coat pockets.

"What?" Yusuke yelped. "All four of your pockets are empty, but you had all that…"

Yusuke marched over the table the ogre had laid out Kurama's belongings onto as he had handed them to him.

"You had all of this," Yusuke said, waving a hand up and down the length of the table. "In your hair?"

"I have a theory on that," Kuwabara said.

"Nobody wants to hear it," Yusuke replied.

"I think he has like a dimensional pocket in his hair that he can store an infinite amount of stuff in," Kuwabara said anyway.

Yusuke gave Kuwabara a withering look but his head snapped back around when the ogre started to address Kurama again.

"Um, do you have a dimensional pocket in your hair?" he asked.

"Why?" Yusuke asked sarcastically. "Is that another missing spirit world artefact?"

"Um…"

Yusuke's face dropped.

"No, I don't have anything on me now but my clothes," Kurama said.

Kuwabara started muttering to himself behind them and Kurama turned to Yusuke.

"Why did you bring Kuwabara with you?" he asked.

"He wants to tell Koenma that arresting you was a dumb idea," Yusuke replied.

"And you think he can do that diplomatically?" Kurama asked.

"I figured it might sound better coming from a human."

Kurama looked less than convinced by Yusuke's words but Yusuke smiled brightly at him as though it was the perfect plan.

"Okay, if you could move along now please," the ogre told them.

"I'll take you to Lord Koenma's office," Ayame said, stepping forwards. "Follow me."

Kurama followed after her as she left, trailed closely by Yusuke, Kuwabara and Puu. The green ogre stood up from his seat behind the table and reached out a hand to protest Puu proceeding to Koenma's office but as he was confronted by two more faces he decided to let George handle the advancing spirit beast.

"Did you see that?" Botan asked, leaning over the table towards the ogre. "I think his hair got shorter after he took all of that out! Does he carry all of this on him all the time, do you think?"

She ran her eyes along the length of the table again before settling on the small trinket box, which she picked up and opened, her eyes almost popping out of her head as she examined the contents.

"I need to keep these items, Miss Botan," the ogre said to her. "They need to be put into storage in case Kurama is sent to prison."

"Hn, not likely," Hiei said flatly, placing his sword down onto the table.

Botan and the ogre turned to him and his face slowly changed from one of smug confidence to one of annoyance.

"I'm not obliged to relinquish anything else," he said stubbornly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'm not even obliged to relinquish my weapon."

Botan shrugged and turned to the ogre, who appeared to be looking at Hiei's right arm.

"What about the dragon?" she asked, turning back to Hiei.

Hiei narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'll just cut off my arm, shall I?" he sarcastically replied.

"We could put a seal on that," the ogre suggested.

Hiei gave him a glare that almost threw him from his seat.

"It's fine," Botan hurriedly said. "Hiei's not hiding anything. The sword was the only item he was carrying and he has handed it over."

"I'm not obliged to hand anything over," Hiei said.

"We're not trying to hide anything from anyone," Botan added as she caught the ogre giving her a sceptical look. "I don't have anything to declare and neither does Hiei."

"Nothing at all?" the ogre asked.

Botan gulped quietly, silently hoping that three hiruiseki did not count as something that she was expected to hand over: though thinking about it gave her an idea.

"Ah!" she said. "You're talking about the hirui stone Hiei is wearing!"

The ogre's face changed, but Botan could not decide why, and so she carried on.

"That's okay, it's not harmful and Hiei's not under arrest anyway," she replied. "We're both just here to sort this little misunderstanding out."

The ogre slowly nodded and Botan waved her hands at Hiei to indicate that he should walk on. He gave the ogre one last glare before moving on, following the others to Koenma's office. Before they even passed through the double doors to the office itself they could already hear several voices overlapping each other in a heated debate, and opening the doors revealed that Koenma was at his desk – once more in his toddler form – yelling at Yusuke who was yelling back, Kuwabara was arguing with Ayame about the ethics of having Puu in Koenma's office and George was moaning to Kurama about his experiences with the various Fruits of Previous Life in the living world. Kurama was sitting still and silent in the centre of the chaos.

"Oh dear…" Botan said softly, looking about herself with a frown.

"Everybody out!" Koenma shouted out suddenly. "Except for Kurama and Hiei, everybody out! I'll call you back when I need you!"

"I'm not leaving if you're just gonna throw Kurama into a prison cell!" Yusuke complained.

Koenma sighed patiently, watching Kuwabara lead Puu out of the office. He waited until they were gone and Ayame and George had followed before answering Yusuke.

"Yusuke, get out of my office," he said carefully.

"No way, you little–"

"Botan, make sure Yusuke is with you when you leave."

Botan's face dropped and she stared at Koenma fearfully, but he was looking down at a pile of paper on his desk and did not notice her concern. She turned to Yusuke, who was baring his teeth, his eyes flashing and his hair ruffled in his anger.

"Come along Yusuke," she said gently. "We can talk about this outside."

Yusuke glanced around the others before eventually walking over to join her.

"This is shit!" he complained as they walked out of the office.

"I know," Botan agreed, closing the doors behind them. "But don't worry, I won't let Lord Koenma send Kurama to prison."

"Oh really?" Yusuke sneered. "And what can you do to stop him?"

Botan smiled humourlessly, the answer to Yusuke's question weighing heavily in the back of her mind.

* * *

Koenma sighed before lifting his head again. He was unsure which sight was more intimidating and frightening: Kurama with his almost blank expression but distinctly darkened eyes or Hiei, who looked about three seconds away from a mass homicidal spree.

"Now what the two of you have been doing is extremely dangerous," he said carefully. "I shouldn't need to tell you that. I tested those fruits on the ogre, and what they did to him was simply awful. Obviously those trees you grew Kurama absorbed elements of your own souls. The tree you grew produces fruit that makes the user uncontrollably violent, which is obviously an exaggerated element of Youko Kurama's ruthlessness. And the fruits that contain Hiei's energy…"

Koenma turned to Hiei, struggling to find the words.

"Well I never imagined you as that sort of personality Hiei, and I think I'll be having nightmares about it for centuries to come," he eventually said.

"What?" Hiei echoed.

"I don't mind you experimenting with these fruits, Kurama," Koenma continued, ignoring Hiei. "But I do mind you putting the lives of humans in danger, and Youko Kurama fuelled by either of those fruits is a clear and present danger to everyone else in your apartment block."

"I always conducted my experiments under a controlled environment," Kurama replied. "Hiei was present to ensure that I did not leave the confines of my own apartment. I took that precaution from the very beginning for the sake of the other humans in the building."

"Surely you understand my concerns, though?" Koenma pressed. "You proved at the demon world tournament that you can outsmart and overcome Hiei, how do you know he would always be enough to contain you if you were blinded by rage or lust?"

"What?" Hiei echoed.

"I admit that the fruits I grew did have far more severe side effects than I had expected them to, but I assure you, I do have the situation under control," Kurama said. "By the time I faced Hiei in the demon world tournament I had already found the balance between the two to allow me to take my full demon form without any unexpected results. Blending the two together creates a formula devoid of ill effects."

"Blending the two together?" Koenma repeated. "You did that knowing that one made you extremely aggressive and the other made you a sex maniac?"

"What?" Hiei yelped.

"One fruit made me aggressive and hateful, the other made me peaceful and loving," Kurama said. "Blending the two together seems to nullify both set of unwanted side effects and allows for a transformation that lets me keep my own personality and sense of judgement in tact."

"What if you got it wrong, or if another demon tried to use one of the fruits?" Koenma asked. "I don't know what was worse for me: fighting off an ogre that wanted to kill me or fighting off an ogre that wanted to seduce me."

"What?!" Hiei squeaked.

"You really are a filthy little pervert, you know Hiei," Koenma said, eying Hiei over disdainfully. "What sort of soul do you have that you tainted the Fruit of Previous Life and changed it into some sort of kinky love juice?"

Hiei glared back at him silently before slowly turning his head to Kurama.

"I hope you understand that what happened to those fruits are a reflection on you both!" Koenma added sternly. "Kurama, your fruit shows that you are secretly violent and Hiei yours shows that you are secretly…"

"Nymphomaniac is the word you're looking for," Kurama offered.

"Right," Koenma agreed. "You're a nymphomaniac, Hiei. And that's more information than any of us ever wanted to know about you."

Hiei snarled out a noise that failed to be threatening because he looked so nervous.

"I'm going to arrange to have those plants destroyed," Koenma continued. "And I'm going to have all seeds and demon plants removed from your apartment, Kurama. I'm sorry to do this, but it's the only way I can be sure that this has been dealt with correctly. I'm going to need you to stay here until that has been done. After that I'm willing to forget this ever happened and I'm sure Hiei won't be opposed to helping anyone else forget about it as the need arises – can I count on you to help me erase a few memories this time Hiei?"

Hiei stiffened as Koenma turned to him.

"You let me down the last time with Botan…" Koenma muttered.

"I can't imagine why that would be," Kurama said, turning to smile almost pityingly at Hiei.

"The only lasting thing I have a problem with is how you got a fruit and the sacred water from spirit world," Koenma said. "If you tell me how you managed that without anyone noticing here, I'll gladly let you both go and we'll never mention this again."

"I'm afraid I can't divulge that information," Kurama replied.

"The fact that someone managed to do it shows that security here in spirit world is sorely lacking," Koenma replied. "It's imperative that I find out where and how a breach took place."

Kurama said no more and Koenma sighed.

"I'm not a fucking sex maniac!" Hiei suddenly blurted out.

"We never said that you were," Kurama replied.

"Yes you did!" Hiei snarled. "You called me a nymphomaniac!"

"By the literal definition of that word, only a woman can be a nymphomaniac," Koenma said. "I suppose that was the wrong thing to say."

"Damn right it was!" Hiei growled.

"And besides, according to Koenma, the fruit is playing on a repressed side of our personalities," Kurama added.

"Yes, damn it!" Hiei said. "Because I repress my… Wait, what?"

Kurama smiled sympathetically at Hiei and Koenma chuckled quietly into one hand: and Hiei exploded.

* * *

Botan, Yusuke and Kuwabara were all pacing about outside of Koenma's office: which was quite a feat considering streams of ferry girls and ogres were weaving through them in typical, chaotic, spirit world fashion.

"This is the most stupid thing that toddler bitch has ever done!" Yusuke complained.

"He can't put Kurama in prison, he just can't!" Botan moaned.

"I hope he puts Hiei in prison," Kuwabara muttered.

All three stopped and Kuwabara paled as both Yusuke and Botan turned to glare at him.

"He's Yukina's brother!" he defended himself. "All this time I've been… And she's Hiei's sister! Do you have any idea what he'll do to me?"

"If you're really lucky he'll just kill you," Yusuke replied, grinning darkly.

"Yusuke!" Botan snapped. "Yukina loves Kuwabara, and Hiei would never do anything to upset his sister! As long as Kuwabara never hurts or upsets Yukina, Hiei won't hurt Kuwabara!"

"There you go," Yusuke said to Kuwabara. "Spend the rest of your life doing exactly what Yukina tells you to and Hiei will let you live… Hey, I guess you're safe, Kuwabara! You're already pussy-whipped by that girl, so it looks like you've got nothing to worry about!"

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara shot back. "At least I know how to treat a lady!"

"Are you saying that Keiko isn't a lady?" Yusuke asked.

"Stop twisting my words!"

"Stop fighting over something pointless!" Botan yelled at them. "We need to figure out a plan to help Kurama!"

"Right," Yusuke agreed.

"Hey, I got an idea!" Kuwabara offered, smiling brightly.

"No," Yusuke told him flatly.

"You didn't even let me tell you what it was!" Kuwabara argued.

Yusuke started to tell him that it was probably a stupid idea but all three fell silent as they heard the sound of breaking furniture from beyond the doors to Koenma's office.

"I guess Hiei's giving his statement now," Yusuke said.

"Oh dear!" Botan wailed.

"Hey!" Yusuke said, reaching a hand out to her.

She shirked out of his reach and launched herself through the double doors.

"Should we go in there too?" Kuwabara asked Yusuke.

Yusuke shook his head.

"Let's wait until that big-mouthed idiot has finished talking at them," he said. "It's not like anything she has to say is gonna make any difference, and I really can't be bothered listening to her crying on about nothing."

* * *

"…Botan?" Koenma said.

Botan slowly approached his desk, glancing nervously between Kurama and Hiei as she walked.

"This is a private interview, Botan," Koenma reminded her. "I'll call you when we're done."

"I need to tell you something, Sir," she said faintly.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait," he insisted. "I won't be long, now go back outside and wait with Yusuke and Kuwabara."

"I can't wait – this can't wait."

"Botan, we're discussing what I found at Kurama's apartment, and I know that I may have gotten the key from you, but this doesn't really concern you, so please, turn around and leave."

"But it does concern me, Lord Koenma Sir!"

Koenma jerked back in his seat as Botan slammed her hands down onto the edge of his desk. He looked up at her, surprised to see her looking more determined than she ever had in all the years he had known her.

"Botan, we've already discussed how you sometimes take things too personally with regards to Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke and even Kuwabara," Koenma said carefully.

"You're not listening to me!" she roared. "This isn't about Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke or Kuwabara! This is about me! It's all about me!"

Koenma slid back further in his chair, eying Botan warily. Something seemed different about her. Was she glowing?

"Botan, perhaps you should wait outside with Yusuke and Kuwabara for now," Kurama suggested.

"Yes woman, this doesn't concern you," Hiei added.

Botan started to smile, but it was not the sort of smile Koenma felt comfortable seeing on her face. She slowly drew in a deep breath and then opened her mouth and started to talk.

"It was me, it was all me, I'm the one who made the faulty Fruit of Previous Life, I'm the one who stole the fruit and the sacred water from spirit world and I'm the one who used The Stolen Moment to go back 99 years in time to go to demon world and I'm the one who named him Hiei and I'm the one who delivered Yukina's letter to the ice village and that night you caught me with Kurama I was growing the third Tree of Previous Life and helping him while he tested the fruits, I know you thought I was in love with him but I'm not, I'm in love with Hiei, and I have been for a really, really long time and that was why I even used The Stolen Moment in the first place and using The Stolen Moment was why I had to steal the fruit and the water and grow the other tree!"

Apart from the sound of Botan panting to get her breath back, Koenma's office was, for perhaps the first time ever, deathly silent. The moment dragged on until Botan appeared to catch her breath, at which point Koenma cleared his throat awkwardly.

"…Botan?" he said in a scratchy voice.

"Please don't blame Kurama or Hiei, they're both innocent, it was all me, Sir!" she replied, clasping her hands together and bowing her head.

"B-Botan, I don't think you realise what you're saying…" Koenma said slowly. "I appreciate that you're concerned for your friends, but you can't just come into this office and make such outlandish claims about such important things as–"

"It was me!" Botan yelled, slamming her hands onto his desk again and fixing him with a look that made her look positively demonic. "I made the evil fruit tree, it was my energy that grew it, I was the one who came to spirit world and stole the fruit and water to grow it, I was the one who used The Stolen Moment to go back in time and that was why I had to take those things from spirit world and grow that tree because Kurama had figured out that I made a wish on The Stolen Moment and in return for him not telling anyone I had to do this favour for him which was getting the fruit and the water and growing the tree and then I stayed with him when he tested the fruit that I grew and that was the night you caught us there together but I was only there because of the fruit but you thought I was in love with him but you were wrong because I went back there later with Hiei because I had the key to Kurama's apartment because I was taking those things from spirit world and I needed to be able to get in and out of the apartment and that's when his neighbours saw me and they thought I was Hana but Hana was a plant and Hiei killed her anyway but only because we were about to have sex and I said some things to him and he got mad and he said he knew about Kurama's experiments but he didn't get involved in them it was only me and you said that Kurama growing that first tree wasn't a crime, just that stealing the things to grow the second tree was and that was my crime so please don't blame either or them please just blame me."

Botan hung her head again, once more breathless, and again there was a long silence.

"You stole the fruit and the sacred water from spirit world?" Koenma eventually asked her. "And you made a wish on The Stolen Moment?"

"Yes," she said without lifting her head. "I'm so sorry, Sir."

"Botan, I… I don't know what to say…"

"Say that you'll spare Hiei and Kurama!"

Botan lifted her eyes to Koenma's again, her desperation obvious.

"I don't understand," he said slowly. "You can't possibly have made a wish on The Stolen Moment, because nothing changed. I can remember sending you to destroy it, and I can remember how we found you. If you had gone back in time, something would be different. There would have been consequences."

"But I was already supposed to go back in time," she replied. "And I know that because I'm the reason Hiei is called Hiei."

Koenma gave her a questioning look and so she continued.

"I went back to try to find Hiei and take him back to his mother because I thought that if he was raised by his own mother he might be happier now, but when I went back in time I had to find Hiei and that took a long time and then I had to find the ice village and that took even longer and I ran out of time and I came back to the present beside the ice village, I suppose."

"When Yusuke found you, you were covered in bite-marks and urine," Koenma pointed out.

"That was Hiei," she replied.

"It was not!" Hiei argued.

"In the past," Botan added. "Little Hiei. He was quite an aggressive child. Believe it or not, he's actually much nicer now than he was back then."

Koenma sighed slowly.

"So let me get this straight," he said. "When I sent you, Botan, ferry girl of spirit world, to destroy a dangerous spirit world treasure, you instead used it for your own reasons, went back in time, travelled to demon world and tried to drastically alter history by taking a violent fire demon back to the ice village he had already been cast out from? Understanding of course that he could easily have destroyed you and the entire population of ice maidens, including Yukina."

"I never thought about it like that…" Botan said slowly.

"Apparently you haven't done much thinking at all, Botan!" Koenma replied. "And so when your hour in the past expired, you came back to the present outside of the ice village, and that was where, when and how Yusuke found you, correct?"

"Yes."

"Why were you out of spirit energy and almost out of life energy?"

"I used up all my energy healing a bad wound Hiei gave me and trying to fly through the storms to reach the ice village."

"And why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Because I thought you would send me to prison or cast me out of spirit world for disobeying you, Sir."

"But Kurama knew about this?"

"He had figured it out, Sir."

"And why didn't Kurama tell me?"

"Because he promised he wouldn't tell anyone and in return for his silence he asked me to help him grow that other Tree of Previous Life."

"So Kurama blackmailed one of my ferry girls to use her to steal from spirit world and to create something very dangerous in the living world?"

Botan's face dropped.

"And where does Hiei come into all of this?" Koenma asked her. "Did he ask you to make that wish on The Stolen Moment?"

"Oh no, Sir!" she hurriedly replied. "I just did that because I wanted him to be happy and free from the woes of his troubled past!"

"But he has been pursuing a sexual relationship with you?"

"…I took him to Kurama's apartment that night, he could have said no…"

Koenma sighed, rubbing his fingers at his temples.

"Sir?" Botan asked.

He inhaled deeply and reached a hand over to the control console on his desk. He pushed a big round red button repeatedly as he exhaled, and Botan watched his actions curiously for some time before she apparently remembered what the button indicated.

"Sir, what are you doing?" she yelped.

"Are you familiar with The Hole, Botan?" he asked her, still tapping at the button.

"…It's the… Yes, I know what it is, but why would you… Are you…?"

Botan turned sharply as several of Koenma's top guards marched into the room.

"Take them away," Koenma told them. "Put them in The Hole."

"What?" Botan yelped.

"All three of them," Koenma added. "Put them in together, let me know when you're done."

Botan continued blurting out incoherent, unfinished questions and Hiei began cursing at anyone who came within arm's length of him. Kurama took on the same sort of darkened look he got when he was facing an opponent he truly despised and intended to kill ruthlessly, but said nothing.

And shortly all three were leaving Koenma's office, each flanked by a guard officer on either side of them.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei, Kurama and Botan play the blame game as they find themselves in the worst place in spirit world, Koenma makes his decision on how to handle the whole matter and Hiei and Botan are forced to talk about how they ended up where they now are. **Chapter 43: The Hole**.


	43. The Hole

**Recap:** Koenma took Hiei and Kurama to spirit world to question them on the FOPL plants in Kurama's apartment. He started to come to a resolution with them but Botan broke into the room and confessed EVERYTHING she has done throughout this fic, making all three of them seem like criminals, and leading to them all being sent to "The Hole".

* * *

 **Chapter 43: The Hole**

Botan looked down at the bulky handcuffs holding her wrists together. She then looked about the dull grey walls on three sides of her and the glowing barrier on the fourth that completed the perimeter of her confinement: a dull prison cell in the basement of spirit world prison, in total isolation, removed from anyone and anything else. Finally she turned to glare at the person next to her.

"This is all your fault!" she wailed.

He turned his head slightly to regard her with a mildly curious look.

"You and your sneaky plans and blackmailing and sneakiness, Kurama!" she continued. "It's your fault that we're in here! Why didn't you just tell Lord Koenma about what I did with The Stolen Moment? Or at least ask for something nicer in return from me! You did this to us!"

"I beg to differ," Kurama replied, his tone tighter and slightly deeper than usual. "This is all Hiei's fault."

"What?" Hiei echoed.

Kurama turned to him, his face darkening as their eyes met.

"You did this to us," he continued. "Your impetuousness, your insistence on repressing yourself and your over-the-top aggression has landed us here. If you had just admitted that you were in love with Botan back when the vine of the guilty showed you as much, she never would have made that foolish wish and none of this would have happened. You also had no need to step forward today and admit to knowing about my experiments. You willingly incriminated yourself and for no good reason."

"You're wrong, Kurama!" Hiei growled back. "This is all her fault!"

Botan gasped as Hiei pointed a finger in her direction.

"You heard the brat: he was willing to forgive and forget everything and we had that situation under control!" he continued. "Or at least we did until that stupid woman came running in and started meddling again! She's like the witch of all times: she meddled with the time travel device to meddle in my past, she meddled with those fruits to meddle in your present and now she's meddled with our interview with Koenma to meddle with our futures by sentencing us to imprisonment! If she had just kept her mouth shut and used her brain a little more, none of us would be in this mess!"

"Hiei!" Botan protested. "I did everything with the best of intentions!"

"Good intentions are not sufficient justification for actions that endanger so many others," Kurama pointed out. "I think Hiei might be right: this is your fault, Botan."

Botan gasped again.

"Leave her alone!" Hiei argued. "It's not like you're exactly blameless in all of this, Kurama! You took advantage of her good nature to get what you wanted, and it's only because of your stupid fruits that we all got found out!"

"Kurama saved me by not telling anyone what I did with The Stolen Moment," Botan pointed out. "And I only did that because of you, Hiei. I think Kurama might be right: this is your fault. Why did you admit to knowing what Kurama was doing with those fruits?"

All three fell silent, glaring at each other accusingly until Botan finally started to soften.

"I suppose this is all my fault," she said with a sigh. "I was the one who started it all by using The Stolen Moment – I don't even know what I was thinking, that was an important spirit world treasure and I took it and used it for my own selfish desires, and then I stole from the Tree of Previous Life and I grew that tree, committing more crimes against spirit world to hide my initial crime… I should know better than anyone not to do those sorts of things, I'm a ferry girl, it's my job to know spirit world law!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Botan," Kurama said softly. "I admit that I was only thinking of my own selfish desires when I blackmailed you into stealing those items from spirit world and to helping me with my experiments. I also should never have asked you to stay with me while I tested the fruit your energy grew. The sides effects could have led to something disastrous, I should never have put you in danger like that."

Botan and Kurama exchanged small smiles and nods before both turning to Hiei.

"What are you looking at me for?" he snapped moodily. "None of this is my fault!"

Kurama started to frown at him but Botan quickly stepped forwards, holding up her bound hands for him to stop.

"He's right, Kurama," she said. "He's only here because of us."

"Except that you only used The Stolen Moment because of him and I only used those fruits because of him," Kurama muttered.

"I never asked either of you to do either of those things!" Hiei pointed out.

"And yet you were the motivation for both of us to defy our own better judgement and to risk our own reputations and even our lives," Kurama replied.

"And you think that nobody cares about you," Botan added. "And here Kurama and I cared so much we both became criminals and ended up in prison for you."

"I never asked you to do those things," Hiei said again.

"And again I remind you that gifts are something people give without being asked," Kurama answered him. "And technically speaking, you did ask me to use the fruits because you said I was not a sufficient challenge to your strength in my human form."

"I knew I should have stayed in demon world…" Hiei grumbled.

"I accept that I am here for committing a crime against spirit world, for abusing spirit world property, for blackmailing one of spirit world's servants and for endangering the lives of the humans who live around me. And I'm sure that Botan understands that she is here for misusing an item she knew better than to play with so carelessly, and for agreeing to help a demon experiment with sacred spirit world property."

"Yes, you both deserve to be here."

"As do you."

"What?"

Kurama arched his eyebrows expectantly at Hiei, who merely continued to glare at him angrily.

"I may have committed crimes against spirit world in the past," Hiei ground out. "But this time, I am one hundred percent innocent!"

"Not quite, Hiei," Kurama replied, tilting his head slightly as though mildly confused by Hiei's response.

"Damn you, I've done nothing wrong!" Hiei barked impatiently.

"What have you spent the best part of the last year doing, Hiei?" Kurama asked.

Some of the anger faded from Hiei's expression and a hint of confusion and concern began to play across his features.

"I don't know what you're talking about, fox," he said quietly.

"You need to be direct," Botan whispered to Kurama. "Hiei doesn't understand subtle conversation, you have to just come out and say whatever it is directly to him."

"Hn, you're one to talk," Hiei sneered at her.

Hiei started to glare at Botan angrily but his anger vanished again when Kurama spoke.

"Seducing a ferry girl is generally frowned upon, especially if the act is committed by a demon with a criminal past, Hiei."

Hiei made a series of frustrated and awkward noises but did not manage to form words to respond to Kurama.

"You even admitted to knowing that chasing after Botan would ultimately find you incarcerated in spirit world prison," Kurama added.

"It wasn't my fault!" Hiei snarled. "It was her! She lured me in with her ways of… With her wicked ways!"

Botan gasped indignantly.

"Of course she did," Kurama said flatly. "Because this is all just about a physical attraction for you, isn't it Hiei?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes slightly but did not attempt to answer Kurama's question.

"Yes," Kurama said, starting towards Hiei. "And it's all gone full circle, hasn't it? We're in exactly the same situation we were in when Koenma asked us to find The Stolen Moment."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hiei quietly replied.

"Neither do I," Botan added. "I'm getting confused…"

"Oh but it's quite simple," Kurama said to her. "When we were all reunited to search for The Stolen Moment, you were both in denial and you both childishly expressed yourselves the only way either of you knew how to: with petty theft and bribery. And here we are, almost a full year later, and you've both done exactly the same thing again."

"…What?" Botan echoed. "But… I haven't done anything! I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"He's not talking about anything, Botan," Hiei said darkly. "He's just pretending to know something that we don't because he knows it pisses me off. This is a game for him. This is how he amuses himself – it's like his hobby."

"I see Botan was right about you Hiei," Kurama said with a sigh. "You truly do need to be shown something to believe in it."

"Well that's definitely true," Botan said. "You're a proper doubting Thomas, Hiei!"

"I'm a what?" Hiei echoed.

He started to move towards Botan but Kurama stepped into his path and the two collided with each other. Hiei staggered back and glared up at Kurama threateningly, but as Kurama raised his hands between them Hiei's face dropped.

"Well, well," Kurama said with a small smile. "I never wanted to return to a life of crime, and I think I can now redeem myself. For committing a crime against spirit world and for taking advantage of Botan, I can now clear my conscience with this. Two birds with one stone, so they say."

Hiei grabbed at Kurama's hands but Kurama managed to move them from his reach.

"With this I can solve a mystery for one of spirit world's citizens as well as give Botan a reason to smile," Kurama said. "Botan, look what I just found."

Kurama turned his back on Hiei and shook his hands, unfurling the object he had apparently snatched from Hiei. Botan broke into a huge grin and skipped over to him, taking it from him.

"My picture!" she squealed gleefully. "I thought it was lost forever!"

Botan almost wanted to cry in joy and relief at once more seeing the beautiful drawing Rui had created of her. She had given up hope of ever seeing it again, and to finally have it in her hands once more was almost too much for her: she had never been so attached to anything material before in her long, long existence, but she was very attached to the drawing. But as her initial moment of delighted surprise passed, she started to realise what had just happened. Her smile slowly faded and she leaned closer to the paper, sniffing at it tentatively: it smelled like Hiei.

"…You've had it all this time?" she asked, turning to Hiei. "Since the night we…? But why?"

"I took it from…" he started, avoiding looking directly at her as he spoke.

"Don't look so bashful, Hiei," Kurama said, smiling almost smugly. "Just like before, you're not the only one hiding something. Botan took something from you too, look."

Botan frowned questioningly at Kurama before yelping out a "hey" as he grabbed her wrists and pushed downwards to straighten her arm before moving his hands to her shoulder and shaking the sleeve of her kimono. She watched him with an outraged sneer until she heard three clinking sounds at the ground by her feet, at which point her face dropped and she turned very pale.

"I'm surprised you didn't sense that she had them all this time, Hiei," Kurama said, turning to Hiei, who was glaring down at the three hiruiseki on the ground. "Or perhaps you were in denial about that, too."

Hiei slowly crouched down and picked up one of the hiruiseki, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger, before rising to his feet again, his eyes never leaving the gem and his face slowly becoming less and less intense.

"Well I think my work here is done," Kurama muttered, releasing Botan and walking up to the barrier at the front of their cell.

Botan was still watching Hiei, waiting for him to erupt and start threatening her for keeping his tears: but, much to her surprise, he kept his eyes on the stone, as though hypnotised by it, and, perhaps more amazingly, he appeared to have the faintest hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"Kurama?" a voice called out. "Lord Koenma has requested that you come to his office."

Botan and Hiei both turned to watch as the barrier split and Kurama stepped through the gap created.

"You two have to stay here," the guard said, closing the barrier over behind Kurama.

"Alone?" Botan asked.

"Together?" Hiei asked.

The guard glanced back and forth between them, one eyebrow flicking upwards.

"This way please," he said, turning back to Kurama.

Botan and Hiei approached the barrier, leaning to one side to watch as Kurama was escorted out of their line of sight. They stayed that way until they could no longer hear the combined footsteps of Kurama and the guard leaving before both looking down at the objects they each held and then turning to look directly at each other.

"Why did you keep this?" they both asked at the same time.

* * *

"You're scared," Yusuke snorted, leaning back in his seat and resting his head back against his hands.

"I am not!" Kuwabara argued.

"You're sweating worse than a glass-blower's ass!" Yusuke replied. "You're scared! Just admit it!"

"I'm not scared, Urameshi!" Kuwabara insisted. "I'm just thinking about what I'm gonna say if I get called as a character witness for Kurama."

"Oh yeah? Go on then, what have you got so far?"

"I'm gonna say that Kurama is a decent man, the sort of man another man can count on in a crisis. He's done a lot of good things for us: he helped me train for the dark tournament, he saved us when Genkai set us up in the old mansion, he figured out that the elder Toguro brother was hiding inside that Gourmet guy and he managed to finally get rid of him, he planted the death plant in himself when he was fighting Karasu, and when that dumb referee said he stood up too late after the ten count he just accepted it with dignity. Without Kurama, none of us would be here, he's like the brains of our group and we couldn't solve cases without him. He's proven time and time again that he's smart, strong, and not a man to be truffled with."

Yusuke's face dropped at Kuwabara's last words.

"I'm flattered," he heard Kurama's voice say.

Yusuke and Kuwabara both turned to see Kurama approaching them with one of the prison guards.

"I like to think that I also never pancake in a dire situation," he said, smiling at Yusuke.

Yusuke laughed but Kuwabara looked confused. Kurama continued onwards towards Koenma's office, smiling to himself as both Yusuke and Kuwbaara called after him that they had "got his back". It was a nice sentiment and reassuring reminder of their friendship: but Kurama had a suspicion that it was an unnecessary precaution.

"Kurama," Koenma greeted him as he entered his office.

"Koenma," Kurama replied.

"You can leave him with me," Koenma told the guard.

The guard bowed and left the room, closing the doors behind himself. Koenma held a hand out to the seat opposite his desk, which Kurama then quietly sat down into.

"So Hiei and Botan?" Koenma said, tilting his head slightly. "How long has that been going on?"

"Longer than I would care to guess," Kurama replied with a smile. "Though they are both so deeply entrenched in their own denial, I don't believe anything of any great substance has ever occurred between them."

"I see…" Koenma said slowly. "It's quite an unlikely combination. I'm still not entirely sure that I'm happy about it."

"On the contrary, they fit together surprisingly well," Kurama answered. "Throughout all of this, I have seen a side to both of them that I doubt even they themselves are aware of. Unlike anyone else involved in the last assignment you had for us, I took the liberty of studying the documentation available on The Stolen Moment in great detail. For yourself, Botan and everyone else, the emphasis of its powers seemed to be on the consequences its use would bring about, but I don't believe that was the true purpose of the device. One book I read on the matter described it simply as "you are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true": and I find that rather profound in this case. I think that Botan made her wish with the intentions of reaching Hiei's heart, but that was something she already had the power to do through her own loving, forgiving and patient nature."

"I understand that Botan would fall in love with Hiei – well, actually, I don't understand it completely, I was always more concerned that she developed feelings for Yusuke – what I mean is that I understand, seeing how attached she is to all of you, that she would eventually take that one step further and fall in love, but what concerns me is Hiei's feelings for Botan. Ayame tells me what some of the human souls she ferries talk to her about what they would like to do to a pure spirit like her, I can only imagine what a demon like Hiei thinks about our favourite ferry girl."

"Again I think you misunderstand the situation. You saw what happened when we found Botan near death at the end of our last assignment: without even thinking about it, Hiei donated his own energy to her to save her life. His actions were not only entirely selfless but they were unnecessary: Yusuke had already volunteered to donate his energy to Botan, but Hiei actually pushed him aside to help her. Hiei does not have a long history of giving of himself to help others, and on the rare occasions that he has, it has been a strong indication of how highly he regards the person he seeks to assist. And Hiei has admitted to watching Botan a lot. During the recent demon world tournament he seemed unable to stay away from her. You see how devoted and caring Hiei is to Yukina, I imagine that, if he could just get past his own insecurities about love, he would apply the same principles to his relationship with Botan. I know from my own experiences entering this body and living as a human that every soul experiences and expresses love in a different way, and for Hiei it is just a matter of him learning how he needs to express his own feelings."

Koenma nodded slowly.

"Put your hands on the desk," he said.

Kurama placed his hands on the desk, smiling as Koenma leaned forwards and pushed a button to release the handcuffs from his wrists.

"Thank you," Kurama said, lifting his hands from their shackles.

"I've sent a couple of ogres to your apartment to retrieve the trees, they should be back soon," Koenma said. "I've told them not to touch anything else in there. I decided it would be unfair to take all of your plants and seeds."

"That was very gracious of you," Kurama replied.

"And I've decided how I'm going to deal with this matter," Koenma continued. "I know that if I just take these trees from you, you will look for other ways to take your full-demon form, ways that might be more dangerous to you and others. I respect that you worked hard at this experiment of yours and that you did your best to contain it from affecting or harming anyone else. You said that combining the two fruits you created made a perfect potion: how perfect was it? Was it better than juice from the original Fruit of Previous Life?"

"Sadly yes, it was."

"I see. In that case, when the ogres get back here, we'll take a trip to the original Tree of Previous Life, and you can plant your trees there. They will grow better in that environment and you can come here to harvest the fruits as you need them. It's a long and difficult journey, so if I keep the trees here I know you will only take from them when absolutely necessary. I can also regulate your access to them. Does this sound fair to you?"

"If my criminal record remains clean then yes, it sounds very fair to me."

"I'm willing to clear your record. The journey to the Tree of Previous Life will take more than an hour if we fly, and since we will be taking two trees, it may take longer. That means it will possibly be three hours just to travel there and back, plus the time it will take to transplant the trees… We might be gone as long as four hours. Do you think four hours alone in The Hole together is long enough for Hiei and Botan to sort out their various issues?"

Kurama smiled.

"I hope so," he said. "If not, then heaven help us all, they may never sort themselves out."

* * *

"I asked you first!" Hiei said sternly.

"You did not!" Botan argued. "And besides, you knew that this picture was important to me, keeping it from me was a very naughty thing to do!"

"You've been carrying around three of my…" Hiei began, shaking the hiruiseki in the air between them. "This is sick! All I took was a picture, you took my…"

Botan tilted her head slightly.

"Did you even know that you could make hirui stones, Hiei?" she asked gently.

"No!" he promptly answered. "I didn't even… But I know where these came from, I can tell by the energy in the…"

"Oh, Hiei," she said. "Was that the first time you ever cried?"

"I didn't cry!" he snapped. "I just… I didn't cry! You made me… You were talking about… You did this to me!"

"I never meant to make you sad. I wanted to make you happy. I thought you might like to know that, even if nobody else ever did, I love you."

"You just used the present tense, like you still do… I just…"

"I do still love you Hiei. I always will. I thought you understood that."

Hiei sighed, his hands lowering and his head turning to look at the barrier again.

"Why did you take the picture from me?" Botan asked, determined not to give up.

"I just wanted…" he started. "It was just so… I didn't think I would… I thought that if I never saw you again, I could at least…"

He sighed, sounding irritated. His lips twitched as though he was considering biting something and Botan clearly saw his throat move as he swallowed hard.

"Oh Hiei!" she said, clasping her hands together at the side of her face. "That's so romantic! You kept the picture so that you could always see my face!"

Hiei muttered out a few curses but Botan ignored them, moving over to him and hooking her bound hands over his head to hug him as best she could with handcuffs on.

"I knew you were a big softy underneath it all!" she said. "And you're so warm! You're like my own personal thermos!"

"…Isn't a thermos a type of flask?" Hiei grunted.

"You're my very own roasty, toasty, cosy, fuzzy, wuzzy–"

"Stop it, woman!"

Hiei wriggled downwards out of Botan's hold and staggered away from her, turning his head from her so that she could no longer see his face.

"Aw," she said, reaching out her hands to stroke at his hair – which had almost spiked back up to its former glory. "Am I embarrassing you?"

"Just stop it!" he growled back.

"Alrighty then, I didn't mean to embarrass you, Hiei," she replied.

"And stop saying "alrighty then"," he added. "It's fucking infuriating!"

"Okay dokay," she said.

"And stop saying "okay dokay"! It's no better than saying "alrighty then"!"

Botan paused and Hiei finally started to turn around, watching her from the corner of his eye.

"Roger dodger," she said, saluting him.

He snarled out a noise of infinite frustration before launching himself at the barrier. Botan leapt from back him, watching with wide eyes as he became temporarily stuck to the barrier, which appeared to by frying him on the spot. After several seconds of buzzing, cursing and hissing he fell back, landing in a sitting position, smoke and steam rising from him.

"Well now don't you feel like a proper silly billy, Mister Hiei?" Botan asked.

Hiei groaned, dropping his face into his hands. Botan smiled and moved over to him, sitting down close behind him and hooking her arms over his head. He did not move and so she pulled her arms down over his before bending her elbows at his waist and pressing her hands against his chest, pulling him back to rest his back against her chest. She pressed her cheek against one side of his head and closed her eyes, relaxing into the warmth of his body.

"Oh Hiei," she whispered into his ear. "I love you too."

* * *

King Enma himself must have built the barrier enclosing The Hole, Hiei thought as he sat on the ground, his skin and clothing literally fizzing from the injuries he had sustained throwing himself at the barrier in his desperate bid for freedom. And to make matters worse, his handcuffs were still as tight as ever: even though colliding with the barrier had frayed his coat, fried his boots, singed his hair and scorched his skin, the handcuffs were completely unharmed and still resolutely in place about his wrists.

"Well now don't you feel like a proper silly billy, Mister Hiei?" Botan said behind him.

The rhyming nonsense she insisted on speaking was going to be the death of one of them one day, he thought with a groan, lowering his head into his hands. He heard Botan walk up behind him but he lacked the motivation and the energy to respond. He allowed her to sit down behind him, putting one leg either side of him, and to hook her handcuffed arms over his head and shoulders. She somehow managed to get him into a hug of sorts, with her arms bent up the front of his chest and her hands pressed against him, and her cheek resting on one side of his head.

"Oh Hiei," she whispered into his ear. "I love you too."

The hushed sound of her voice so close to him and the warmth of her breath on his ear was a nice sensation, but her words angered him: it was like she was implying that he was some sort of soft-hearted, romantic weakling who constantly sought her approval in everything he did. Like what was going on between them – like what had been going on between them recently – was all about mushy, pathetic, idealistic romance.

Hiei started to smile as he remembered something.

"You created that second tree in Kurama's apartment," he said quietly, more thinking aloud than actually addressing Botan.

"Yes," she agreed. "But I only did it so that he wouldn't tell Lord Koenma about what I did with The Stolen Moment."

"You grew that tree," Hiei said, his voice clearer. "Those trees were mutated from the original, and the brat said that was because they absorbed repressed elements of the personalities of the people who created them! I'm not the repressed nymphomaniac, you are!"

"Wh-what?"

"You're a pervert! Hn! I always knew that you wanted me every bit as badly as I wanted you! You twisted, perverted bitch!"

"What?"

Hiei allowed Botan to wriggle her arms back up over his head and move away from him – it was not exactly like she was going to go very far as they were still contained within a small prison cell together – before he slowly turned around to watch her stepping back until her back hit the wall. Her face was scarlet and she was breathing heavily, looking torn between outrage and utter humiliation.

"You've seen what your soul fruit does then?" he asked her, smirking in amusement at her discomfort.

"It turned Kurama into Pervo Kurama!" she replied.

Hiei hesitated, unsure what to even say to such a statement. The term "Pervo Kurama" was starting to conjure up all sorts of unwanted images in his mind of Youko Kurama in some compromising positions with those irksome women that lived in his building: and shortly those thoughts led to one that started to make Hiei's anger rise.

"You were with him when he experimented with the fruit that turned him into a pervert?" he asked quietly.

"It wasn't my fault!" Botan replied.

"What happened?" Hiei asked.

"I didn't deliberately make those fruits like that!" she wailed. "I tried so hard to make them properly, but I ruined it just like how I ruined that other demon plant!"

Hiei gritted his teeth and bit back the urge to yell at Botan in his impatience.

"What happened when Kurama ate the fruit you made?" he asked her.

"He turned into Pervo Kurama!" she replied, as though the answer ought to have been obvious.

"And you were there with him?" Hiei asked.

"Yes, of course," she said. "It was a little strange…"

"What did he do to you?"

"Well he sort of…"

Botan's face slowly started to change as she apparently finally started to understand what Hiei was asking of her.

"Oh, nothing like that!" she said hurriedly. "He just tried to… Well, and then he sort of… Though I was… We kissed. But it didn't mean anything, I promise!"

"I already know that you kissed him," Hiei told her. "I saw it."

"You saw it? But how?"

"I was… Yusuke told me you had gone to the living world to be with Kurama and I came after you. I was there when Koenma caught the two of you leaving the building."

"You were there? The night that Kurama was experimenting with the fruit I made – you were there? You saw when… And you heard what Lord Koenma said about… Oh… Oh! Is that why you were outside my hotel room the next morning?"

"I put you to bed that night. I found you collapsed in the hotel hallways. Now I understand why: you wasted all of your energy growing that stupid tree for Kurama."

Hiei lowered his eyes to the ground in thought, but the sight of two more of his own hiruiseki there made him promptly lift his head again. Looking over at Botan he started to feel confused: she was bunching her fists by her mouth and frowning, her eyes a little too shiny as though she was on the verge of tears.

"What?" he asked flatly.

"Oh Hiei, Lord Koenma said such terrible things that night," she said quietly. "I was so upset. And when he saw me with Kurama, he thought that we were together, but we're not – we never were! Hiei, you didn't think that Kurama and I were…? Did you?"

Hiei sighed, eying over the barrier at his side again. This really was more talking than he wanted to be doing, but getting away from Botan was not an option open to him: his skin was still stinging from his last attempt to throw himself through the barrier.

"I thought I didn't want Lord Koenma to find out about what I'd done with The Stolen Moment because of the sentence I might face," Botan said quietly. "But I think I was more afraid of you finding out about what I had done, Hiei. I did honestly only have the best intentions in mind – I just wanted you to be happy and I thought that if I took you back to the ice village, back to your mother and your sister, you would grow up to be happy!"

"You could have completely fucked up the timeline," Hiei pointed out. "I could have killed you. And what if you had managed to get me back to the ice village? You don't think Koenma's assumption was correct? You don't think I would have melted that desolate wasteland out of the sky, killing everyone in the process, including my own sister?"

"But you would never hurt Yukina!"

"I didn't know about Yukina back then! I only found out about her after I got my jagan eye and returned to the ice village."

"You didn't kill anyone the day you returned to the ice village."

"I was older, more sensible and I cared about honour by then. When I was a child, I was a reckless, thoughtless killing machine. Count yourself lucky all I ever did was bite you. From what I can remember, I wanted you dead."

"Well I suppose if I hadn't come back to the present when I did you might have managed to catch me with that last energy blast, and that probably would have killed me – possibly forever, what with it happening in the past and all…"

"You're an idiot. You knew what that device was capable of, you should have known better than to use it. Did you even once consider the potential consequences of your own reckless actions?"

Botan narrowed her eyes slightly at Hiei's question.

"Do you ever even once consider the potential consequences of your own reckless actions?" she asked him. "Because it never looks that way to me. Like when you fought Kurama in the demon world tournament–"

"I get the point!" Hiei snapped. "Forget about that! Why did you stink when we found you on your way back through time?"

"You peed on me," she flatly replied.

"I did not!"

"In the past. You fell asleep in my arms – which was so adorable – and when you woke up, you wet yourself. And me. Because apparently even back then you didn't wear underwear…"

"Well if that's true, it's your own fault!"

Botan sighed and nodded.

"You were a very ugly child," she muttered, perhaps less quietly than she had intended to.

"Hn, of course I was," Hiei answered her. "I was the bastard offspring of one of the few ice maidens who bothered to find out what sex actually is."

"Oh but that's not true, Hiei," Botan replied, much to his surprise.

Hiei had expected her to be shocked or horrified at his derogatory reference to himself and his casual use of the word sex, but she appeared completely unaffected by both, and, amazingly, she actually looked like she knew something that he did not and she was about to delight in telling him all about it.

"Oh really?" he sneered sarcastically.

"Yes, really!" she confirmed. "I met your mother – Hina – in the past, and she loved your father very much! I saw your father, but I didn't actually speak to him. He pushed me aside in the strip club on his way to meet up with your mother. He was quite ordinary looking, though he had black hair like you too. But you were definitely born out of love. Your parents were looking for you when I saw them. So I'm not really sure if you can call yourself a bastard, as such… And the ice maidens maybe don't have any men in their society, but they know plenty about sex."

Hiei's face twisted.

"…What?" he grunted.

"The ice maidens do enjoy sex, just not with men," Botan openly replied, almost knocking Hiei off his feet with both the content of her speech and her frankness of tone. "Apparently that was why your mother and your sister never fitted in, because they preferred men. But I would think that all of the rest of the ice maidens up there now prefer to be with other women."

"…That's a bit of a stretch…" Hiei muttered. "Just because there are no men, you assume that they…?"

"I assume nothing," Botan said with a shrug. "Rui told me that the women there share loving relationships with each other. She even asked if I would like to stay in the village and be her lover."

Hiei yelped out a noise that even he was shocked by the sound of.

"What was that?" Botan asked him.

"That was a cry of pain," Hiei sarcastically replied. "The pain of my brain exploding."

"Oh Hiei!"

"You realise Rui was the bitch who threw me off the cliff?"

"She's actually a very nice lady when you get to know her. She drew that picture of me."

Hiei turned to the picture in question, which had somehow landed up on the floor alongside the three hiruiseki, as though all four items sought to gather together and insult him with their combined presence.

"…You met my mother…?"

Hiei kept his eyes on the drawing of Botan as he spoke, though he could feel Botan's eyes burning into him as he awaited her answer.

"Yes, I did," she eventually replied. "She looked exactly like Yukina. I actually called out Yukina's name and wondered why she was ignoring me! How silly of me is that? She was very… She was very like you, Hiei. She was quite stubborn and determined and haughty and rude and beautiful. She was headstrong but she had a strong heart too. I think she was the sort of person who wouldn't love easily, but when she did, she loved with all she had, and that made her love all the more precious and important to those lucky enough to feel it. And Hiei, your mother loved you very much. She loved your father, she loved your sister, I think she loved Rui and I know that she loved you."

"You obsess with the word "love"," Hiei sneered. "You throw it around so much it almost becomes meaningless."

He turned his head slightly and caught Botan giving him a cryptic look and he quickly realised his mistake.

"Which it is," he hurriedly added. "It is meaningless."

"I don't think so," she replied, a sly smile creeping onto her face, much to his chagrin. "I think it's very meaningful. To me, at least, it's very meaningful. But I think that to you, it's even more important. I think that you have a higher opinion of love than even I do, because you appreciate it more. You've never received it easily or readily, and you don't give it easily or readily, but when you do, it's more complete and devoted."

Hiei sighed, turning his head from her to avoid having to look at the smug look on her face any longer. He really, really wished the barrier would break: maybe he would try throwing himself at it again. If he did not manage to break through it, he could maybe at least knock himself out and not have to continue what was rapidly becoming an awkward conversation with Botan.

* * *

Botan smiled smugly to herself. She was right. She knew it, and so did Hiei. If she had not been right, he would certainly have corrected her instantly, but still he was standing in front of her, his head turned from her, in silence.

"I'm not a soft man, like Kurama or Kuwabara," he said suddenly.

Botan's smile vanished and she gulped, watching the back of Hiei's head expectantly, hoping that he intended to continue.

"Hn, and despite what my sister thinks of me, I am not a kind man either," he added. "A life with me wouldn't be an easy one for anyone."

Botan tilted her head slightly, thinking carefully before answering him.

"I don't know about that," she said. "I think you have a great capacity to care for others. Maybe you could only care for a very few people, but those people would be the luckiest people ever to have lived, and I'm sure they would know that. I don't underestimate the strength of your heart Hiei, you shouldn't underestimate the strength of mine."

"Hn."

Hiei turned to face her at last, a smile on his face that looked as dark as it did amused.

"I know that you have immeasurable strength of heart, Botan," he said quietly. "I can't doubt that when you still stand before me and smile after everything I've put you through. Maybe I envy you that."

He turned from her again, but not before she saw his expression distinctly shift into one of anger.

"Hiei," Botan said gently. "My offer is still open: if you'll let me, I can show you how to express the love you feel."

"Love?" he spat. "Hn, I've told you before, I don't even know what love is! This may surprise you, but the lousy bastards who raised me missed that out from my typical daily lessons in theft, murder and pain. Shocking, I know."

Botan hung her head, feeling silly for having pushed him. Before he was laying the sarcasm on so thickly, she had obviously forced him into a corner he was not happy to be in, she decided, and for that she felt sad and annoyed with herself. She ought to have known better: when it came to admitting being attached to anything Hiei took his time and only ever let it out in small increments. She should have been more patient; though she did think it was ironic that Hiei was so slow in this one area of his life when he rushed through everything else at great speed and with great abandon.

"I suppose, from what you've said to me in the past, this love is about caring how someone else is feeling, never wanting to leave their side, worrying when they are hurt or scared."

Botan's head snapped up and she fixed her eyes onto the back of Hiei's head, wondering if she had misheard. Hiei's voice was tight and she could see that his shoulders were squared, apparently from the effort of talking about something he had possibly never even thought about before.

"If love is the need to hear a voice, to see a smile and the irrational willingness to die just to protect that one person from harm, then…"

Botan almost wanted to grab Hiei and shake the last words out of him. She balled her fists and clenched her jaws together to try to contain herself, deciding that she had waited a long time to hear any sort of recognition of the concept of love out of Hiei and so a few more seconds would be nothing.

"Then I've loved you longer than you could ever know."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Yusuke and Kuwabara learn a lesson from Hiei, Botan finally remembers something she could not before and Yukina and Botan play a (not really so) nasty trick on Hiei. **Chapter 44: The Little Things**


	44. The Little Things

**Recap:** Koenma agreed to drop the charges against Kurama et al on the condition that the FOPL trees were relocated to spirit world, and, alone in prison together, Hiei finally (finally, finally, after 354K words of story) admitted his love for Botan.

* * *

 **Chapter 44: The Little Things**

"If love is the need to hear a voice, to see a smile and the irrational willingness to die just to protect that one person from harm, then… Then I've loved you longer than you could ever know."

Botan gasped, clasping her hands beside her face in joy. Hiei maybe started to say something else but his voice was cut off as Botan launched herself at him, trying to put her arms around him from behind and forgetting that her hands were still held together by handcuffs, leading to her almost punching him in the back.

"Damn it, woman!" he snapped, rounding on her and eying her over angrily.

She started to apologise but soon stopped. Despite the fact that his tone had been harsh and that his expression was one of angered disgust, his eyes were still slightly glazed over from his earlier confession, and the sight made Botan swell with joy.

"Oh Hiei!" she said, tears forming in her eyes.

She grabbed the front of his coat and pulled him to her, touching her forehead to his.

"These stupid handcuffs are just getting in the way!" she moaned.

"Yes, about that…" Hiei said. "Why are we still in handcuffs? Usually the guards remove a prisoner's handcuffs once he's inside his cell. They only ever leave them on if they don't intend to leave a prisoner in the cell for long. And Kurama is still gone: I think Koenma might be coming back for us to interview us separately. We should discuss and agree a suitable alibi and just let Kurama take the blame for this."

"Hiei!" Botan yelped. "That's not very nice! This is not all Kurama's fault!"

"I suppose not, but I don't intend to spend the rest of my life in this place," Hiei replied.

"Maybe I should ask Lord Koenma what his plans are."

Hiei pulled a face at Botan but she smiled as unwaveringly as ever, releasing his coat and holding up one finger.

"I'll call him on my communicator!" she said brightly.

She began trying to recover her communicator from the sleeves of her kimono, but found the task impossible when her hands were locked together.

"These silly handcuffs!" she said. "Now let's see…"

She bent her hands over, stretching her fingers towards the energy-bound handcuffs, eventually managing to reach the release with one finger.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked her. "Those are locked, they can only be opened by…"

His voice trailed off as Botan's handcuffs came loose and fell to the floor between them. She then set about searching her sleeves for her communicator, not even noticing the unblinking stare of disbelief Hiei was giving her.

"Ta-da!" she said cheerfully as she finally recovered her communicator.

She flipped it open and pressed a button to call Koenma, smiling at Hiei as she waited for her boss to answer her. As she finally noticed the look of confusion and shock on his face she realised her error.

"Oh I'm sorry, Hiei!" she said, reaching a hand over and pushing the release on his handcuffs.

He watched them fall to the floor before fixing his eyes onto her again, his face contorted even further.

"I sometimes work in the prison," she explained. "Remember? I used to bring you your meals when you were a prisoner here in spirit world! I'm authorised to control the handcuffs!"

Hiei slowly narrowed his eyes, his mouth straightening out.

"So all this time we've been wearing them, you could have just done that and saved us both a lot of discomfort?" he asked flatly.

"Yes…" she vaguely replied. "Oh dear, Lord Koenma isn't answering me… It's ringing, but he's not picking it up. I wonder why…"

"Maybe because he considers you a criminal now?" Hiei suggested.

"Maybe," she agreed.

She snapped her communicator shut and slipped it back up one sleeve, thinking carefully about what to do next.

"Oh, I know!" she said, the suddenness and raised pitch of her voice making Hiei jump on the spot. "I'll just go up to his office and ask him!"

Hiei sighed.

"We're in a prison cell," he pointed out. "Or did you forget?"

"No problem!" she said. "There's a little control panel by the barrier, where an ordinary spirit like myself can push a button to deactivate the barrier! That's how I was able to bring you your food, remember?"

"Yes, and I also remember that the control panel is on the outside of the cell, which is the sensible place for it to be, after all."

Botan shook her head and giggled.

"Of course it's on the outside of the cell!" she said. "Oh, silly me! Oh Hiei, no wonder you look so miffed, what a terrible scatter-brain I am!"

"Indeed," Hiei said flatly.

"I'll just nip outside and switch the barrier off and then we can go up to Lord Koenma's office together and sort this mess out once and for all!"

Hiei opened his mouth to protest, only for his jaw to drop and his eyes to grow to the size of saucers as Botan casually passed through the barrier that had almost fried him alive only minutes earlier. He watched, dumbfounded, as she moved over to the control panel adjacent to cell and pressed a few buttons, the barrier fading upon her actions.

"There we are!" she said, smiling at him brightly. "Are you coming with me?"

"The… You just…" Hiei began, shaking his head in disbelief. "You just walked right through the barrier!"

"Well of course I did!" she replied indignantly. "That barrier was designed to hold demons only! I'm a spirit! It has no effect on me!"

Hiei groaned, slapping a hand against his forehead – which was quite a stupid thing to do because all it really achieved was to give him a sore jagan eye.

"Are you coming with me?" Botan asked him.

He waved a hand at the cell behind him and the handcuffs on the floor, words failing him to ask why in the three worlds she had not freed them all earlier.

"Oh I see!" Botan said, hurrying back over to his side. "Mustn't forget these!"

Hiei watched in amazement as Botan gathered up her portrait and the three hiruiseki, somehow managing to conceal them all about her person as she laid her hands on them. She turned to Hiei with a smile as she finished and he rolled his eyes.

"Yes," he said flatly. "That's what I was referring to. Not the fact that all three of us could have been out of here long ago, before Koenma even sent for Kurama."

Botan tilted her head slightly and Hiei groaned again.

"Let's go," he said. "Get your oar, it took us too long to get down here walking with those guards, I'm running all the way back."

"Oh but I can't use my oar in here, Hiei!" Botan replied. "It's forbidden!"

Hiei sighed patiently.

"Then get on my back, I'll carry you," he said. "Let's just get up there before that idiot does something stupid that we all regret."

"Oh Hiei, that's no way to talk about Kurama!" Botan protested. "He's very intelligent, and you know it!"

"I wasn't talking about Kurama, I was talking about your incompetent boss."

"Well that's not very nice either!"

"Just get on my back!"

Botan started towards Hiei but then stopped, her face flushing and her eyes looking down to the ground.

"But I'm wearing a kimono, and I'll have to open it over my legs…" she mumbled. "And then I'll be pressed up against your back…"

Hiei growled and pounced at her, grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder. She screamed out several reasons why what he was doing was a terrible idea but he ignored them all and took off at full speed back in the direction of Koenma's office.

When Hiei finally arrived at his destination he dropped Botan back down onto her feet, where she staggered slightly, looking about herself in increasing embarrassment and alarm as she noticed that the hall behind them was lined on either side with ogres and ferry girls, all pressing themselves against the wall and glaring fearfully at Hiei, who had apparently just charged through them without slowing any or bothering to pick his way around them.

"…Oh my…" Botan whispered, inadvertently stumbling into the table outside of Koenma's office. "Sorry!" she hurriedly apologised.

Behind her she heard the doors to Koenma's office banging shut and she spun around, starting in alarm as she realised that Hiei had disappeared. It then occurred to her that Hiei roaming freely around spirit world was possibly worse than her wandering around demon world on her own: and she decided never to do so again if it made others around her feel even half as bad as she felt right then.

"Hiei!" she cried out, charging through the doors after him.

Botan barely made it two steps into Koenma's office before she found herself almost walking straight into Hiei, who had already turned to leave again.

"They're not here," he told her. "Nobody is."

"Oh…" Botan said, looking about herself, feeling almost afraid to find Koenma's office both empty and silent.

She followed Hiei back out into the hall, where the ogres and ferry girls still had not moved from their positions pinned to the walls in fear. Botan frowned at them curiously before turning her attention back to Hiei, who boldly approached the table by the door, snatching up his sword.

"What have you done with Kurama's possessions?" he demanded.

Botan then noticed that the table was empty.

"Oh dear…" she said. "They must have packed them away into storage. That's what they do when someone goes to prison. He'll get them back when he finishes serving his sentence."

"But Koenma took him back out of prison," Hiei pointed out. "And we were never made to hand over everything we had yet!"

"I've still got one of Kurama's things here!" Botan said, producing the trinket box she had picked up. "…But I want to keep this one…"

Botan smiled to herself as she poked at the seeds inside the box, only halting her actions as she noticed a pair of crimson eyes watching her with a look a strained patience.

"Right," she said, stuffing the box up one sleeve. "We have to find out where Lord Koenma and Kurama are."

Botan looked about herself, frowning slightly when she saw that the walls were still lined with terrified ogres and ferry girls – she was starting to wonder if they were actually spirits at all – maybe Koenma had done some creative redecorating and had some very lifelike statues erected there. But, as she noticed one of the figures moving noticeably away from the others Botan changed her mind on that theory.

"George!" she called out.

The blue ogre stopped, peering back over his shoulder at her with an almost guilty look on his face.

"George, where did Lord Koenma go?" Botan asked him.

He turned fully around and grinned nervously.

"Well, I couldn't really say, Miss Botan," he said.

Botan walked over to him, smiling sweetly.

"Oh please, George," she said. "You must know where they went, you always know everything that Lord Koenma does."

"Well…" George said slowly.

He started to blush and grin sheepishly and Botan reached a hand out to touch his arm, but stopped a few inches short of her goal as something flashed in front of her eyes and George suddenly found himself staring at the tip of Hiei's sword.

"Tell us," Hiei warned him. "Now."

"I-I," George began, sweating nervously. "I was just–"

"Tell us and I won't kill you," Hiei pressed.

"Lord Koenma and Kurama went to the highest mountain in spirit world!" George blurted out. "They went there to replant the trees they took from the living world!"

"What?" Botan echoed. "But… I thought Lord Koenma wanted those trees destroyed!"

"Are you lying to us?" Hiei growled.

"No, I swear!" George yelped. "They agreed they would keep the plants here and Lord Koenma said he would lift all charges against Kurama!"

"What about us?" Hiei asked. "What does he intend to do with us?"

George glanced back and forth between Hiei and Botan, his face changing slightly.

"Keep your eyes over here," Hiei warned him. "And answer me."

George's eyes snapped onto Hiei and stayed there despite the increasing fear that grew on his features as he looked down at the fire demon.

"He-he said that we should all leave you two alone down there until he got back," he said quietly. "He said you both needed time alone together. He said he would let you both out when he got back so that you could go back to your party."

"He's letting us off?" Botan echoed.

"Hn, I never did anything wrong to begin with," Hiei said smugly, returning his sword to its sheath.

George sighed in relief as the threat to his life was removed.

"I knew he wouldn't stay mad at you long, Miss Botan!" he said, turning to Botan. "You're his favourite ferry girl."

"Oh, thank you George!" Botan replied. "How very sweet of you!"

"Apparently you're the ogre's favourite ferry girl too," Hiei grumbled. "Come on, let's go."

Botan pulled a curious face at Hiei but he ignored her, grabbing her hand and dragging her away from George. As she staggered after Hiei, Botan looked back over her shoulder at the scene behind them, still amazed to see that the countless ferry girls and ogres were still pressed to the walls, frozen in their fear. It seemed quite silly to Botan: she could never remember ever being that afraid of Hiei.

As they left the temple Botan summoned her oar and pulled back on Hiei's hand, nodding her head towards the oar.

"We have to fly from here," she told him.

"I can't believe that idiot brought us here like that for nothing," Hiei grumbled as Botan sat down.

"Well I suppose he was right about those plants being too dangerous to be kept in the living world," Botan pointed out.

"He was just mocking us," Hiei moaned, leaping onto the blade of Botan's oar. "I hate being mocked."

Botan gave him a reassuring smile as she took them up into the sky.

"Well don't worry about it now," she said to him. "Let's just go back to Genkai's temple and enjoy the rest of the evening."

"The evening has already been ruined and it's practically over already," he moodily replied.

"You sound a little crabby, Hiei," she said.

He bared his teeth at her but she merely smiled back at him.

"How about I make you a nice big mug of Milo and we go to bed early tonight?" she offered.

"Now you're just treating me like…"

Hiei's face slowly changed, his anger fading and a slightly lost look appearing on his face that made Botan want to laugh: but she contained it for fear of offending him.

"Did you say "we"?" he asked.

She smiled at him and nodded and finally he found his confident smirk again.

* * *

The temple was, perhaps unsurprisingly, in darkness when Hiei and Botan arrived back there. The sky was clear and littered with stars and a glaring, almost full moon, the light from which was exceptionally bright in the frosty winter air. The blue light of the moon was so pervasive it seemed to be spilling through every window they passed as they silently walked through the temple. Hiei suspected that, by the way Botan kept looking out of those windows with a dreamy look on her face, nights like this one were considered a good thing in the living world. Hiei, however, despised them. They were cold and the ground was turning slippery with ice, and he hated such conditions – probably a throwback from his unshakeable hatred of the ice village, he decided.

Ahead of him, Botan eventually stopped, having led him into the kitchen. She started moving about the cupboards, obviously readying herself to carry out her promise of preparing him a drink. It was a tempting thought, but the day had been long and trying enough, and Hiei did not really have the patience left to sit with her and drink a hot drink whilst making petty small talk about nothing to pass the time until she fulfilled the second part of the promise she had made him.

"Botan," he said abruptly.

She almost dropped the bottle of milk she had been removing from the fridge at the sound of his voice, but somehow managed to catch it by her knees. She hurriedly stuffed it back into the fridge and closed the door, turning to grin at him.

"Oopsie," she said quietly.

"Give me your hand," he said, holding one hand out towards her.

She smiled slightly, but her eyebrows were drawn together, and as she moved her hand towards his, Hiei could see that Botan was shaking. Whilst a part of him found it quite cute that she was so nervous, another part of him felt disappointed and angered by it: obviously she was scared that he was going to hurt her, and he knew that he probably would no matter hard he tried not to. He suppressed the thought as best he could and held onto her hand in a gentle but firm grip, hoping to convey a sense of reassurance to her. He turned and led her out of the room and along the hallway, but they did not get far before he felt her pulling back on his hand and he heard her feet stumbling slightly as though she was trying to pull him back to a halt.

"Hiei, stop, please," she whispered.

Hiei obediently stopped, but he did not turn around. He sensed that he already knew what Botan was about to say to him: she was not ready, or this was not the right place or the right time. It never was the right place or the right time, he thought bitterly.

"This is wrong," she added.

Hiei sighed quietly before turning his head to look back at her, trying to keep the anger and disappointment from showing in his eyes as they met hers.

"I'm staying in one of the rooms at the back of the temple," she said, smiling gently at him. "It's back this way."

Hiei hesitated, actually allowing Botan to drag him back along another corridor that branched off of the one they had been walking down, stumbling along several steps before his mind finally caught up to what was happening. He had been so sure that she had been about to make an excuse not to spend the night with him that to find her actually leading him to her room had been almost too shocking to process. He started to accept the idea, allowing her to continue to lead since he had no idea where she was going anyway. He took the opportunity to admire her figure from behind as she walked, the mesmerizing sway of her ponytail that passed down her spine to her hips distracting him from everything else around him.

"Oh dear!" Botan gasped.

Hiei closed his eyes and stepped back, touching a hand to his nose, making a mental note never again to watch Botan walking whilst he himself was walking.

"What happened?" Botan asked him, eying over the doorframe he had just bounced off of.

"Nothing, I'm fine," he lied, wiping his sleeve along his nose to clear the blood.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes," he insisted, continuing into the room beyond.

Botan slid the door closed behind him and padded her way across the room to the window, leaning against it to look at the sky outside – again. Hiei let her indulge her interest for a few minutes, taking the time to observe her behaviour. She was fidgeting and humming a tune that sounded familiar somehow – though Hiei could only associate it with the ferry girl herself, so perhaps it was just something he had heard her singing to herself before – and quite clearly she was nervous. She had been quite confident the night they had gone to Kurama's apartment together, but this night she seemed to be stuck in the same frame of mind she had been in when she had been darting about in the sky before they made it to Kurama's apartment the time before. Obviously then, he decided, he was going to have to make a move to put her into the frame of mind she had been in when they had reached Kurama's apartment and she had pushed his sword from his hand and initiated a kiss.

But maybe tearing off her underwear with his teeth was not the best idea this time: if only because he did not want to become predictable. Part of the joy of being with Botan was seeing and hearing the innocent looks and noises of surprise she made when he did something she had not been expecting, and he wanted to hold onto that pleasure.

Using his unique speed and stealth abilities Hiei crossed the room, positioning himself directly behind Botan, who was still looking out at the stars. He carefully reached his hands out towards her and took hold of the ends of her obi without her noticing. He then tugged outwards sharply, untying the bow at her back. She straightened and turned around to face him, her obi dropping to the ground as she did so. She gasped softly, looking down at it in her confusion. Hiei quickly took advantage of her distraction by swiftly opening out her pink kimono and slipping his hands over her shoulders, pushing the garment from her frame completely and pulling her into his arms. Of course, she was still wearing another two layers of clothing, but already Hiei could feel more details of the smooth curves of her body through the silk and he gladly let his hands glide over them, smiling as she moaned appreciatively into his ear.

He was slightly surprised when her hands found their way into the folds of his scarf and began pulling it loose from about his neck, but he did not complain. Secretly Hiei was longing for the day Botan had the confidence to just pounce at him and undress him herself, but he knew that she was a long way from that yet, and he was happy to wait. Once she had his scarf loose she slid her hands down the back of his coat, and unfortunately it was not quite as pleasant as he had been hoping it would be, as the initial shock of feeling her skin cold against his momentarily spoiled the moment.

"You're cold," he grunted.

He leaned closer to her and touched his lips to her throat, surprised to find that even her neck felt cooler than usual.

"It's cold outside," she quietly replied. "And I get cold when I'm flying. That was why I wanted to have a hot drink first – to warm up."

Hiei started to feel guilty for denying her the drink, but as she started to pull her hands back he quickly forgot about it again.

"I didn't say stop!" he snapped at her.

He caught Botan smiling as she slid her hands back into his coat. He smiled himself, keeping his eyes on her face as he spoke his next words.

"If you wanted something warm inside you all you had to do was ask, woman," he growled.

He watched as her pink eyes slowly became framed by increasing amounts of white and her delicate lips parted, her cheeks turning gradually redder as understanding slowly dawned on her. He chuckled darkly at her response, moving forwards again to kiss his way up the length of her neck. Despite her apparent discomfort with his last statement, she quickly melted into his arms with each kiss.

"Oh Hiei," she sighed softly.

He never tired of hearing her say his name like that, and when she accompanied it by gripping her hands into his shirt his concerns that she was not ready vanished, and he moved his hands inside her white kimono, his fingers making short work of the fastenings. He stepped back to allow her to slip out of it herself, taking the opportunity to remove his coat and boots. As he moved back towards Botan she hurriedly kicked off her sandals and socks before opening her arms to him. Now dressed in only her yukata, Hiei could see the bare skin of her arms from the elbows down and her legs from the knees down. It was an enticing sight, but not nearly enough to satisfy his desires that night. He stepped into her embrace, placing his hands onto her lower back and slowly grabbing his fingers around to form his hands into fists, gathering up the flimsy material of her remaining clothing, his smile widening as he heard the ties of the garment straining and the pop of stitches unpicking, one at a time.

"Hiei…" she whispered, a hint of urgency clear in her voice.

Hiei smiled into her shoulder, glad to hear that she was finally in the same state of need that he was. He opened his mouth to nip at the tender skin at the base of her neck but stopped short as a horrifying sound tore through the entire temple, hurting his ears in a way that he had thought only the mystic whistle ever could.

"Oh dear!" Botan gasped.

Hiei leaned back slightly, his eyes thinned and his body tense. Botan was already looking up at the ceiling, and, despite knowing that he would not be able to see the source of the problem by doing so, Hiei looked up with her, grinding his teeth in frustration as the child continued to scream above them.

"How does she know that I'm here?" he growled.

Botan's head snapped down so quickly she almost clattered her chin off of Hiei's nose.

"No, silly!" she said, smiling gently down at him. "She's not crying because of you! She probably just had a little accident, or had a bad dream. Don't worry, she'll be fine soon."

Hiei was not at all reassured by Botan's words, however, and his concerns only multiplied when he quite clearly heard two sets of footsteps landing on the floor above them, one light and quick, moving across the room, the other heavy and slow, staggering in the opposite direction.

"Hey, little princess!"

Hiei cringed at the sound of Kuwabara's voice, which had the nauseating effect of rapidly draining the blood from a certain part of his body that had been pulsing with it only seconds earlier.

"Is she okay, Kazuma?" he heard his sister say.

"She just had a bad dream," Kuwabara replied, his gritty voice seeming to vibrate through the very walls around them. "Isn't that right? Who had a bad dream? Was you dreaming about nasty monsters again?"

To Hiei's relief, the child did gradually stop making noise as Kuwabara continued talking at her as though she was an especially stupid human child: he wondered why Yukina had not told Kuwabara that although demon children took as long as human children to learn to talk, they were perfectly capable of understanding everything said to them from birth.

"But you didn't make poo-poo!" Kuwabara said. "No you didn't! Who's a good girl?"

Hiei slid out of Botan's arms and unsheathed his sword, which was still conveniently hanging from his belt.

"Hiei?" Botan said, grabbing his wrist as he tried to move away from her.

"I'm going to kill Kuwabara," he calmly told her. "It won't take me very long, so don't move, I'll be back to continue this."

"Hiei!" Botan hissed, tugging at his arm.

"Put her back into the bed," he heard Yukina say.

Hiei paused, sensing that something else was amiss.

"Aw, but she's so cute!" Kuwabara said. "She looks just like her mommy! Yes you do!"

"Please, Kazuma, she has to sleep," Yukina insisted. "You'll teach her that she can cry for attention all through the night if you make too much of a fuss. Just put her back down and come back to bed."

"Aw, okay."

Kuwabara muttered out some more disturbingly human phrases as he apparently replaced the child to the bed and Yukina's feet moved across the room and then back again. Two sets of footsteps moved back to a single point, and at the sound of a bed creaking Hiei finally realised that was wrong.

"Oh fuck…" he growled, roughly returning his sword to its sheath.

"What is it?" Botan whispered.

"Clean out your ears and listen," he sarcastically replied.

She pulled a face at him, but as she heard Yukina quite clearly saying "not now Kazuma" her face quickly adopted the same expression as Hiei's.

"Oh my…" she whispered to him. "The walls and floors and ceilings of this temple must be as thin as paper!"

"Yes, which is quite restrictive for us."

Botan looked confused, but as she heard Yukina giggling she seemed to once more realise his point.

"I see," she said with a nod. "You would have to be very quiet, Hiei."

"Me?" he echoed. "You're the noisy one!"

"Oh Hiei, you're just as talkative as I am!"

Hiei sighed, pushing his hands through his hair.

"Either we put a gag on you or tonight doesn't happen," he said flatly.

"Oh…"

Botan looked up at the roof again, chewing at her lip in thought.

"Well…" she said slowly, her eyes falling back down to land on Hiei. "Everyone else is only here for the weekend. I could convince Yukina to spend a few extra days before Christmas with the Kuwabara family, and that way we would have this whole temple to ourselves for a week at least."

Hiei did not want to have to wait any longer: but equally, he did not want Kuwabara, Yukina and the baby listening to Botan screaming his name all night.

"Come and lie with me, Hiei."

Botan crossed the room to the bed, and at first Hiei was reluctant to follow her, instead opting to stay poised where he was, ready to race upstairs and murder Kuwabara the second Yukina said something he disliked. He kept his eyes on the roof until he saw Botan moving onto the bed, at which point his attention was drawn towards her, his eyes widening slightly as he watched her crawl over the bedding, the sight of her rear-end in such a provocative position proving highly distracting. He found himself moving towards her, and before long she had pulled him under the sheets and was lying behind him, cuddled against his back.

"Mm, you're so warm!" she said.

Botan kissed his cheek and snuggled down, quickly drifting off to sleep behind him. Hiei, meanwhile, stayed awake for a long time, keeping his eyes on the ceiling long after the temple had once more fallen into silence, telling himself that, in the morning, he would do two things. First of all, he would kill Kuwabara. Then he would take Botan out into the forest where nobody would be able to hear her and finish what he had tried to start that night.

* * *

Hiei growled and opened his eyes to thin slits, surprised to find that the room was bright, and that apparently he had, eventually, fallen asleep the night before. His eyes slowly opened wider, focussing on the window, which was the source of the sound that had awoken him. The sound came again, and now, with his eyes open, he could see that it was Yusuke, standing outside the window and tapping a finger against it.

Hiei's eyes were suddenly wide open and he was sitting up in the bed, breathing deeply.

"Hey!" Yusuke called to him, his voice muffled through the glass.

Yusuke pointed at something beyond Hiei and Hiei turned, seeing Botan lying on her back, her arms above her head and sprawled out in both directions, her hair spilling over the pillow. Her mouth was hanging open and she was snoring softly. She looked quite disgraceful, and Hiei wondered what was becoming of him that the sight still managed to cause a distinct stirring in his groin.

He turned sharply back to the window at the sound of a second muffled voice calling his name, his eyes starting to glow as he saw that Kuwabara was standing out there with Yusuke. Yusuke made a kissy face at him and Kuwabara began strutting about, shaking his hips as though pretending to be a woman. Hiei's pulse started to rise and his entire body started to glow. Yusuke grabbed his hands at his gelled hair, pulling it into spikes and Kuwabara produced a broom from nowhere, leaning back on it as though he was a ferry girl and putting on an especially stupid face. Yusuke pretended to shove him from the broom and began doing something that Hiei was sure would scar him mentally for life: he put a hand on Kuwabara's back and began pretending to bash his hips against him. The image was both infuriating and beyond ridiculous, and Hiei was silently glad when someone else intervened before he had to, the sight of Yusuke running scared from his own woman offering Hiei a slight consolation for the humiliation he had already suffered.

* * *

Botan awoke slowly, stretching her arms and legs out at her sides before slowly opening her eyes. Sunlight filled the room, and although she knew that it was probably still quite cold outside, she felt warm seeing the golden glow on the walls and floor. She sat up and looked about herself, the sight of Hiei's coat and boots on the floor reminding her that he had spent the night with her, and yet a complete survey of the room had not revealed any sign of him. She sighed and pouted but decided that he must still be nearby somewhere, and so she got up, fixed her hair and redressed herself in her pink kimono and set out to look for Hiei.

She checked the living room, finding Shizuru, Keiko, Yukina and Megumi there, before moving on to the kitchen, where she found Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Good morning," she greeted them.

"Good afternoon, Botan," Yusuke sarcastically replied.

Botan ignored his remark, instead looking about the room curiously.

"Where are Hiei and Kurama?" she asked.

"Gee, I dunno," Yusuke said with a shrug.

"Oh well," Botan sighed. "Maybe if I make some Milo it will bring Hiei in here."

She was unsure if his sense of smell was that keen, but Kurama's certainly was, and if the two were together, perhaps Kurama would alert Hiei to her actions and he would come back. She set about warming some milk and measuring out some Milo into a mug, all the while wondering why Yusuke and Kuwabara were sniggering in one corner of the room.

"It was lucky that Lord Koenma didn't keep any of us in prison yesterday," she said, turning to them.

They said nothing and so she turned back to her task, pouring the milk into the mug and blending the ingredients together with a small whisk. She heard Kuwabara let out a humorous grunt that made her slightly suspicious, but before she could question it he started to talk.

"Hey Botan?" he said. "What are you doing there?"

"…I'm making a mug of Milo for Hiei…" she slowly replied, eying him sceptically. "Do you want some?"

Yusuke held out a hand to Kuwabara and arched his eyebrows but Kuwabara shook his head.

"Are you whipping up a froth for Hiei?" he asked Botan.

She frowned slightly as Yusuke tilted one hand back and forth in the air as though to say he was undecided about something.

"Hiei likes it when I make it very creamy," she replied.

Both boys snorted into their hands, apparently amused by something.

"Yeah, it's lucky Lord Koenma let you out though," Yusuke said. "I don't know if you could have handled Hiei stuck in the hole all night long."

"The Hole is a terrible place," Botan agreed.

"I bet it's quite dark and lonely down there," Yusuke replied. "It doesn't see much action."

"Oh no," Botan said. "I've never seen anyone down there before."

"So Hiei was the first to enter the hole?" Yusuke asked.

"Actually no, I was first," Botan replied. "And then it was Kurama. Hiei was the last in. He was quite reluctant to go in. He didn't want to get stuck down there, of course."

"Is it sticky in the hole?" Kuwabara asked.

"Why would it be?" Botan asked.

She frowned again as Yusuke shook his head at Kuwabara.

"So Botan," Yusuke then continued. "You got sent to spirit world prison yesterday, huh? That's something that probably only ever happens to demons. What were you thinking committing those crimes? Would you say that, maybe, doing those things and getting yourself in prison like that, that last night, you had a little demon in you?"

Kuwabara began laughing but Botan failed to see what was so funny about Yusuke's question.

"I never set out to be bad," she said forlornly. "One thing just led to another, and before I knew it I was in that mess… I guess I maybe did feel like a little demon last night."

"You felt like a little demon last night?" Yusuke asked. "What about this morning? Did you feel a little demon inside you before you came out here?"

"No, I just woke up."

"Of course. Hey, I hear Hiei got up really early this morning."

"He must have, yes! I suppose he went into the woods for some exercise."

"Yeah," Kuwabara said. "I hear Hiei likes to go and beat some wood in the mornings."

"Really?" Botan asked. "I thought maybe he had just gone for a quick workout with Kurama."

"Do you get jealous when Hiei goes for a "workout" with Kurama?" Yusuke asked her.

"Why would I?" Botan asked, slamming down the whisk onto the counter. "Why are you two giggling at me? I've told you both before: it's not fair not to share jokes!"

"Well, me and Kuwabara were just talking, and we wondered what sort of activities you and Hiei might do together," Yusuke replied. "Because you don't exactly have much in common."

"Well…"

Botan started to worry then. It was true that she did not share many common interests with Hiei, and she began to worry that he might get bored of being with her if they could not find something to do together.

"I guess though you could probably help Hiei with his ventriloquist act," Yusuke suggested.

"His what?" Botan echoed.

"Yeah," Yusuke said with a nod. "I hear Hiei's pretty good at putting his hand up your skirt and making your lips move."

"What?"

Kuwabara was laughing openly and even Yusuke was starting to let a few chuckles slip out.

"She's so dumb!" Kuwabara whispered loudly.

"She's not dumb, you are."

Botan yelped involuntarily as Hiei appeared from nowhere, his sword pushed between Kuwabara and Yusuke, one end of the blade pressed against the back of Yusuke's neck and the other pushed against Kuwabara's throat.

"Hey, come on!" Yusuke said to him. "We were just having some fun! No swords in the house!"

"It's not fun, it's just two bastards mocking an innocent woman," Hiei flatly replied.

"But it's so funny!" Kuwabara wailed.

"It's not funny," Hiei said. "And the fact that she doesn't understand doesn't mean that she's stupid, it just shows that she's innocent and pure, and if you find mocking that to be an amusing past-time, then the only stupid one around here is you."

"…It was Urameshi's idea…" Kuwabara muttered.

"Oh get over it, Kuwabara!" Yusuke snapped back. "You started it! You asked her if she was "whipping up a froth"!"

"That was funny," Kuwabara replied, grinning.

"Do you two know what I find funny?" Hiei asked them.

"…You don't find anything funny, shorty," Kuwabara replied.

"I find it funny that right now I hold both of your lives in my hands," Hiei said. "It's a little trick I learned recently, called Double Blade Indiscriminate Slaughter: two heads with one twist of my wrist. All I have to do is push forwards, and my sword will cut through both of your necks, one from the front and one from behind. Keep talking and I'll be happy to demonstrate."

Kuwabara took on a suitably fearful look but Yusuke was clearly not convinced.

"Come on Hiei," he said. "We were just joking around. Botan's not even offended because she doesn't understand, but if it upsets you that much, we won't do it again."

"Damn right you won't," Hiei replied.

He held his sword in place a little longer before snatching it back suddenly, making Kuwabara yelp and touch a hand to the back of his neck as though expecting to find a gash there. Hiei casually returned his sword to its scabbard and collected the mug of Milo from the kitchen counter, taking a sip.

"So Hiei, are you coming with us?" Yusuke asked.

"No," Hiei replied, before continuing to drink. "Where are you going?"

Yusuke sighed.

"Me, Kuwabara and Kurama are going out for lunch," he said. "Are you in?"

"No," Hiei replied.

"Oh, like you've got so many better things to do!" Yusuke sneered sarcastically.

"He's got Botan to do," Kuwabara muttered.

Yusuke laughed but Kuwabara screamed as Hiei rounded on him.

"I'm going down to the weapons room to sharpen my sword," Hiei snarled at him. "I think I might have a need for it to be very sharp today."

"…This place has a weapon's room?" Yusuke muttered, scratching his head curiously.

"I didn't expect you to know that," Hiei grumbled.

Botan held up one finger and took a breath to ask Hiei to wait but before she could begin he had downed the last of his drink and sped out of the room, the mug still spinning on the counter where he had deposited it on his way out.

"Oh well," Yusuke said with a shrug. "I guess it's just the three of us."

"Wait just a minute!" Botan said, holding up a hand to stop him as he started to leave the room. "Why didn't you invite any of us ladies to this lunch?"

"I wasn't aware that there were any ladies in here," Yusuke muttered.

"It's men only, Botan," Kuwabara said. "We need to talk about manly stuff."

Botan rolled her eyes.

"Keiko wouldn't be interested in coming with us," Yusuke assured her, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her out of the room ahead of himself.

"Well let's just ask her, shall we?" Botan replied.

"Fine!"

Yusuke pushed Botan all the way down the hall and into the living room.

"Hey Keiko!" he called into the room. "I'm going for lunch with Kuwabara and Kurama, do you wanna come with us?"

"Yeah, sure!" Keiko replied, leaping up from her seat.

"Oh, nice going, Botan!" Yusuke growled into Botan's ear.

Botan started to tell him off but became distracted as she noticed what was showing on the television.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at the screen. "It looks like the room upstairs!"

"No shit, Sherlock," Yusuke replied.

"Hey!" Kuwabara snapped. "Don't use language like that around Yukina and Megumi!"

"Whatever," Yusuke sighed. "It's Nanny Cam. Kuwabara put a secret camera in the room for when the kid is in there by herself. It lets them check that she's not doing anything she shouldn't be."

Botan leaned closer to the screen, studying it curiously, an idea slowly brewing in the back of her mind.

"If it's an open invite for lunch, can I come too?" Shizuru asked.

"Damn it…" Yusuke muttered.

"You can fit five of us in the car, right bro?" she asked, slapping Kuwabara on the arm.

"Yeah, I guess," he agreed. "At least if Keiko and Shizuru come there's no room for Hiei," he whispered to Yusuke.

"Sure," Yusuke agreed. "Let's just go already."

Botan watched them all file out of the room, waving them off before turning to Yukina, who was sat on the floor with Megumi.

"Botan?" Yukina said, frowning slightly. "Are you okay?"

"Would you like to play a little game, Yukina?" Botan asked, grinning darkly.

"…Okay, sure…"

"Excellent! What does the secret camera in that room look like?"

"Oh, it's a hidden inside a clock on the nightstand."

"Alrighty then, wait here for just two minutes."

Botan darted out of the room, running all the way along the hall and up the stairs, hurrying into the room in question and grabbing up the bulky clock from the nightstand. She ran all the way back to the living room, moving the clock about herself and watching as the items she pointed it at appeared on the television.

"I'm going to do something a little strange," she said, tucking the clock under one arm and picking up some of Megumi's toys with her other hand. "I just need you to… Go along with what I say."

Yukina was giving her a questioning look but Botan ignored it, stuffing a bunch of Megumi's favourite toys into a nearby box and gathering it up under her other arm.

"Come with me," she said, nodding her head towards the door.

"Okay," Yukina agreed, picking up Megumi and following after her.

Botan hummed to herself as she walked, feeling both pleased with her plan and a little nervous about implementing it.

"I like that song too, Botan."

Botan slowed slightly, looking back over her shoulder at Yukina.

"What song?" she asked.

"The song you were singing," Yukina replied. "I don't know what it's called, but I like it."

"Oh…" Botan said, turning away again. "Yes, it's just a tune I keep hearing in my head."

"It's about the little things, isn't it?" Yukina asked.

"The little things… Yes… Just the little things… I remember the song now! Oh goodness, I've been thinking about that song for months! I wonder why…"

Botan was glad that she could finally remember the song she had been humming to herself since the demon world tournament, but she decided to concentrate on it later, as she had arrived at the room she sought.

"Hi, Hiei!" she said, walking into the room.

"Hn," he grunted without looking up.

He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a small piece of cloth in his mouth and his unsheathed sword balancing between his hands.

"The others have all gone out," Botan continued, carefully placing down the alarm clock and pushing it with her foot to point it towards where Hiei was sat. "And Yukina and I were about to start on dinner for tonight."

"But it's too early for that!" Yukina said.

Botan shot her a warning look and shook her head.

"It's never too early!" she said. "We're going to make something very special."

"We are?" Yukina asked.

Botan glared at her and she seemed then to realise what Botan was doing.

"Oh, yes!" she quickly said. "Yes, we are!"

She nodded her head, turning to Hiei, who was still looking down at his sword.

"But we've run out of a few ingredients," Botan said.

"We have?" Yukina asked.

"Yes, we have," Botan insisted. "We should probably go and get them. Didn't you say there was a nice shop you got your fresh vegetables from?"

"Oh yes!" Yukina agreed. "It's a lovely place, but it's quite far from here, and Kazuma has left already with the car."

"That's alright, we can take my oar," Botan said, summoning her oar into her free hand. "Hiei, you don't mind if Yukina and I go shopping, do you?"

"Don't care," Hiei replied, his voice muffled by the cloth wedged between his teeth.

"Excellent!" Botan said. "So Yukina and I will go to the shop…"

She moved a little closer to Hiei and put down the box of toys, checking that he had not noticed her actions before hurrying back and grabbing Megumi out of Yukina's arms.

"And you can stay here and look after Megumi for us," she blurted out, placing Megumi down in front of Hiei before jumping onto her oar and shooting towards the door.

She grabbed Yukina into her arms as she flew, only pausing to slide the door shut behind her before speeding back through the temple.

"Botan, what did you just do?" Yukina cried.

"Hiei was never going to get to know Megumi if we waited for him to approach her," she explained. "Hiei prefers to think on his feet, so it's better this way."

"But Botan!"

Botan turned into the living room and closed the door, hopping to the ground and steadying Yukina at her side.

"Look," she said, pointing at the television.

Yukina gasped as she saw Hiei on the television, the cloth still in his mouth, his hands still holding his sword, but his eyes suddenly up and wide, glaring at the toddler sat in front of him.

"Oh Botan, I don't know that this was a good idea…" she said.

"He'll be fine," Botan insisted. "Let's just sit back and watch."

Botan sat down onto the couch but Yukina hesitated to join her.

"What about the shopping we have to get?" she asked.

"That was a lie to make Hiei take Megumi," Botan replied.

"Oh…"

Yukina sat down next to Botan, frowning at the screen.

"That was very sneaky of you, Botan," she said. "But I think I like it. I just hope Hiei isn't mad at us when he finds out that we lied to him."

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Hiei has to deal with his niece and then he had to deal with Kuwabara, though he doesn't really understand what Kuwabara tries to tell him, and, finally sick of being around too many other people, Hiei returns to demon world. **Chapter 45: The Rules**


	45. The Rules

**Recap:** Hiei and Botan escaped from prison (though not really since they were spared anyway), Hiei stopped Yusuke and Kuwabara mocking Botan and Botan dumped Megumi on Hiei.

* * *

 **Chapter 45: The Rules**

Hiei glared at the creature sat before him. He was frozen on the spot, not breathing, not blinking, and it looked like the child in front of him was in exactly the same state, as her enormous red eyes had not moved since she had been placed before him. This was exactly the same as when he had first laid eyes on the child: she had stared at him then too, with the same intensity, and for some time, before she had, of course, realised what he was and started screaming for her life.

But this time the moment seemed to be going on a little longer.

Hiei slowly moved one hand to the sheath of his sword, which was lying at his side. He kept his eyes on the girl as he picked up the item he sought and slowly slid his sword back into it, before placing it down on the ground at his side. He wanted to tell her to stop staring like that, to warn her that staring like that at anyone was only going to get her into trouble; but he did not want to be stuck alone with a screaming baby, so he stayed quiet. She did not look at all happy, but equally she did not yet look afraid or upset. Instead she just looked pissed off and slightly confused – which was exactly how Hiei himself felt right then.

She made a series of moaning noises as she awkwardly got to her feet in a way that only a child so young would think was efficient. It was frustrating to watch, but since she had broken eye contact to carry out her task, Hiei was finally able to blink and breathe again. He kept watching the child even though she had given up watching him, watching her move over to the box Botan had put down nearby. Apparently the ferry girl had at least thought to leave something for the child to entertain herself with, which was something Hiei was more grateful for than he would ever admit to, since he had no idea how to look after a kid. He supposed if he just did the exact opposite of what the bandits who had raised him did then he might get it right.

Hiei spat out the polishing cloth into one hand and placed it down on top of his sheathed sword, keeping his eyes on the girl. She was raking her hands through the contents of the box, her movements slow and uncoordinated. He had no patience for watching such a display, but again he was not about to go anywhere near the child or to say anything to her. With any luck Botan and Yukina would be back soon and he could go back to cleaning and sharpening his sword – and planning how he would kill Kuwabara – in peace.

Hiei tensed and his eyes grew wider still as the child suddenly made a noise that sounded like a pitiful attempt at speech. She had retrieved something pink and fluffy from the box that was almost as big as she was and she had turned back to face him. She started to walk towards him again, though it was obvious that she would not make the journey back carrying something so bulky. Hiei wondered why such a small child had such a huge plaything: it was probably something Kuwabara had got for her, and that was really just another reason to hate the stupid human. And, as Hiei had suspected would happen, before the child was halfway back to him she fell over, landing mostly on her toy, but landing quite hard and flat regardless.

He watched her carefully as she started to make little noises of discomfort and frustration, her head lifting enough that he could see her eyes – which were, he noted, the same colour as his own. Her bottom lip started to quiver and her face scrunched up, and Hiei suddenly found his voice.

"Stop," he said.

Her eyes found his face, but her expression did not change.

"Don't cry," he warned her.

She already had tears forming in her eyes, but she did appear to be thinking about his words so he continued.

"If you cry, people will just use you for your tears," he told her. "And you'll be as pathetic as a weak human if you act like that. Life doesn't wait around for weaklings. You have to be strong and find your own way in life. Suck it up and get back on your feet."

She pulled a face at him that suggested she did not like what she was hearing, but she gripped her fists into her toy and pushed herself back up onto her feet. She stood stiffly, her fists clenched at her sides and a slight sneer on her face, and as Hiei watched her, the tears that had been forming in her eyes seemed to literally suck back up out of sight.

"Good," he said with a nod.

She edged closer to him, her face softening slightly as she started to give him a curious look. Hiei had never seen his own sister at the age her child was now, but he knew that this was how she would have looked and how she would have behaved. At that age, Hiei thought sourly, he had already started killing and stealing.

"Good girl," he added, reaching out a hand towards her to pat her on the head.

Her face changed as his hand neared her and to his surprise she grabbed his hand with both of hers and her eyes flashed white.

"Hey!" he yelped, more in surprise than pain, as she promptly froze his entire hand.

He snatched his hand back and clenched his fist, the ice cracking and melting and shortly vaporising from his skin altogether. As a fire demon, ice had little effect on him, but it was still quite interesting to him that an ice maiden so young would be so quick to violence and so powerful as to be able to freeze his hand like that.

"You little bitch," he growled at her.

She glared back at him fearlessly and he started to smile. Hiei decided that he liked this child after all.

* * *

"That was very sneaky of you, Botan," Yukina said again.

"It worked, didn't it?" Botan replied, pointing at the television.

On the screen Megumi had once more sat down, this time beside Hiei, though still about two feet away from him. She was amusing herself with one of her toys and Hiei was still watching her carefully.

"I'll make us some tea," Botan said, getting to her feet.

"I'll come with you," Yukina replied.

"Don't you want to stay and watch?" Botan asked her.

"I trust them," Yukina said.

Botan smiled.

"Maybe we should worry more about Megumi doing something to upset Hiei!" she joked.

"She's very determined," Yukina replied as they made their way to the kitchen.

"Like her uncle and her grandmother…" Botan muttered under her breath.

"What?" Yukina echoed.

"Oh nothing, sweetie!" Botan sang. "Let's make that tea!"

Botan and Yukina set about making a pot of tea, chatting idly about various other things as they did so. Once they were done they took their drinks back to the living room and sat down on a couch together, turning to the television expectantly.

"Oh no," Yukina said, sitting forwards and almost spilling her tea.

"Oh…" Botan said, frowning slightly. "They must have moved…"

The screen was still showing the same part of the room it had been before, and although Megumi's box of toys and Hiei's sword were still in the picture, Megumi and Hiei had vanished.

"Let's just wait, maybe they'll move back in front of the camera soon," Botan suggested.

"Okay," Yukina agreed.

The two sat back to enjoy their drinks, though neither were relaxed as they watched the screen expectantly. A long silence dragged on before they started to hear footsteps, coming not from the television but rather from the hall behind them. Yukina turned to Botan and Botan quickly pressed a finger to her lips, warning her to stay quiet. She then put down her own bowl of tea and took Yukina's from her, placing it down quietly.

"Follow me," she mouthed out, standing up and tiptoeing over to the door.

Botan slid the door open slightly and peered out the crack she had created. She could not see the source of the footsteps, but she could hear that they were moving up the stairs. She opened the door slightly wider, and finally she caught sight of Hiei, ascending the staircase. She momentarily balked when she saw what he was doing, and she was amazed that Yukina said nothing: Hiei was carrying Megumi under one arm, in much the same way a person might carry a small dog. She looked unconscious, slouched over the crook of his arm, her arms and legs dangling down freely.

Yukina slid the door open wider and edged out into the hallway, and Botan followed. Yukina started to follow her brother but Botan quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her in the other direction.

"What are you doing?" Yukina whispered to her. "Where are you taking me?"

"We're not supposed to be here, remember?" Botan whispered back, summoning her oar. "Let's watch from a different angle."

She led Yukina outside and together they climbed onto Botan's oar. Botan took them up onto the roof of the temple, landing quietly by the window looking down into Yukina's bedroom. They dropped onto all fours and peered over the edge of the window-frame into the room below, watching as Hiei appeared there. He moved over to Megumi's cot and deposited her into it about as gently as could be expected from a man who was never gentle with anything, before pulling a sheet over her. He made no attempt to cover her fully or to tuck her in, instead hesitating for a moment to watch her curl around into her bedding before turning and leaving the room again.

"Aw!" Botan said, turning to Yukina. "See, he can learn when he's made to!"

"I still think it was a bit cruel to force him like that," Yukina solemnly replied.

"Don't be silly, it all worked perfectly!" Botan insisted.

Yukina smiled, but she still looked less than convinced.

* * *

Hiei tried to ignore the voices yelling through the temple as the others returned. This was longer than he liked to spend around others, and he was also a lot closer to them than he liked to be. Staying at Mukuro's fortress had been alright: the place had been full of soldiers, but he had been granted his own room, and although meals were taken in enormous dining halls packed with bodies and every corridor he walked down had brought him into contact with at least five other people, it had still been alright because most of the others there ignored him or else just feared him. Here it was different: nobody could walk past him without talking at him, and it was something he could never quite understand. Why was it necessary for them to say hello and ask him how he was when it had been barely a few hours since he had last seen the very same people?

"Oh come on Keiko!" he heard Yusuke saying. "Don't be mad at me!"

"Sometimes Yusuke, you can be really insensitive!" she shot back.

Hiei turned into the kitchen, rolling his eyes as he found the two of them in there.

"Hi Hiei!" Yusuke called to him. "How's it going?"

Hiei gave him a flat look before continuing to the fridge.

"Come on Keiko," Yusuke said, turning back to his woman. "Look, I bought you your favourite cake!"

"Yusuke…"

"Come on, take a bite!"

"You can't just buy my forgiveness with… Okay, fine!"

Hiei made the unfortunate mistake of glancing over at the two as Yusuke managed to make his woman bite into the sweet pastry he was holding, her actions bringing an all-too-familiar smirk to Yusuke's face.

"What was that?" Yusuke asked. "I know you can take a much bigger bite than that."

"Yusuke!" she snapped, slapping him on the arm and turning red in the face.

Hiei groaned, closing the fridge door and leaving the room again. Suddenly he had lost his appetite. He started along the hallway, pausing at the sound of voices above his head. He turned to his side and watched for a moment as Kuwabara came into sight at the top of the stairs, carrying Yukina's child.

"Be careful!" Yukina called after him.

"Don't worry, Yukina!" Kuwabara called back to her.

He started to come down the stairs, pulling ridiculous faces at the child, faces that amazingly made him uglier than he usually was: and yet despite that, the child was laughing and clapping her hands at him. Hiei could tell by the way she looked at him that the girl was already strongly attached to Kuwabara. He was not really sure how he felt about that, but the fact that Kuwabara had bothered to take an interest in the child and spent so much time amusing her was quite a good thing.

But it was not something that Hiei wanted to watch.

He moved on, walking out the front of the temple and leaping up onto the roof. He sat down there, deciding that dealing with the cold winter air was better than dealing with too many people asking him how he was all the time. He thought about having a nap to pass some time, inwardly counting down the hours until the others all left and he had the place and Botan all to himself.

"Hey Hiei!"

Hiei groaned before turning to look down at the figure waving up at him from the ground.

"Fuck off," he called back.

It should have been obvious that he wanted to be alone right then, but of course Kuwabara was stupid and unable to take a hint, Hiei thought darkly.

"How's it going?" Kuwabara asked, disappearing from Hiei's line of sight.

Hiei said nothing, hoping that the orange-haired fool had gone back inside. Unfortunately he was wrong, as the idiot shortly appeared by the edge of the roof, climbing his way up there.

"Hey," he said again, walking over and sitting down beside Hiei. "So, uh… About yesterday…"

Hiei rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"When you came here and you caught Megumi before she fell in the water?" Kuwabara continued. "That was… Good, I guess. And those things I said to you, I was just in shock, I didn't know you were Yukina's brother. I didn't mean any of it. I'm sorry."

Hiei turned his head sharply, glaring at Kuwabara.

"You meant every word you said, and you are not sorry now," he growled.

"No I didn't mean it, and I am sorry!" Kuwabara hurriedly replied.

"Hn, nonsense," Hiei said. "You're only doing this because my sister asked you to. You're doing this to keep her happy. The truth is that you despise me and the second you realised that I was Yukina's brother it made you sick with fear and disgust!"

Kuwabara's face slowly changed.

"You know I'm right," Hiei added. "The only reason you're here now is because you want Yukina's approval. You'd do anything she asked you to, no matter how humiliating it was to you."

"Maybe…" Kuwabara quietly replied. "But I love Yukina, and she wants us to get along, so why can't you just stop being such a nasty little prick all the time and at least just pretend to like me when Yukina's around?"

"Hn, so you are only here because she asked you to talk to me," Hiei said, adopting a lop-sided smirk.

"You should care that I even bothered! Yukina wants us to stop arguing, and she's your sister, you ought to want her to be happy. I mean, I've seen how you've been with her all this time, and I know that you do care about her happiness."

Hiei narrowed his eyes and his smile faded.

"I don't like you, Kuwabara," he said frankly. "I never have liked you. You've occasionally proved useful in a battle, but for the most part, I'd rather have taken my chances without your help to avoid having to put up with you. I don't like that my sister is so attached to you, and I don't like that you've stepped into her child's life as though it was your right to do so."

"I love Yukina, Hiei," Kuwabara replied, meeting his eyes with a determined look. "I always have. I would do anything for her and for Megumi – I'd even be nice to you if that was what she wanted. And don't think that I don't hate you just as much as you hate me. I respect your strength, but honestly Hiei, you're a total bastard and it's really difficult to find something about you to like."

"So we at least agree on one thing: we both despise each other," Hiei said. "And that's fine. I only tolerate you being so involved with Yukina because I know how much she likes you. I might be willing to pretend that you actually gave me an apology worth listening to, and I may even be tolerant of you from now on: but you have to do something for me, in return."

"…Like an agreement? Between men?"

"Something like that, yes."

"Okay, fine. I'll do anything. Whatever it is, I'll do it if it makes Yukina happy."

"Alrighty then – I mean fine. I've noticed how you are with Yukina, all those things you do for her and how they make her happy. And I've noticed that the other women seem to think those things are to their liking."

Kuwabara gave Hiei a slightly sceptical look and Hiei turned his head away, not wishing to see it.

"You mean when I'm being romantic?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hn, that's such a stupid word," Hiei grunted. "I don't care for it at all… But women like it a lot don't they?"

"Well yeah," Kuwabara replied. "Most guys don't like it – I do, personally – but women love it. They go crazy for it."

"Yes, I'd noticed… So here's what I want from you: tell me how you do it."

Hiei tensed, waiting for Kuwabara's response, which took a lot longer to come than he expected it would.

"H-Hiei…" he said slowly. "Are you… Are you asking me for advice on your love-life?"

"No!" Hiei roared, rounding on him ferociously. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"I think you are, though," Kuwabara replied, smiling back at him. "I think you want to be romantic with Botan…"

Hiei growled at him but said nothing. He was right, after all, though Hiei would never admit as much. It was not so much that he wanted to do those stupid things that Kuwabara did, more that he wanted to have Botan hanging onto him adoringly the same way Yukina did with Kuwabara. He had decided that if he gave her a little of what she wanted, she was more likely to readily give him what he wanted: this love business was not so complicated after all, since apparently it was all about forming agreements and being loyal, and that was not so different from anything else Hiei had done before.

"Tell me about this date thing," Hiei asked.

"You can't say it like that, for a start," Kuwabara replied.

"What?" Hiei echoed.

"You say the word "date" exactly the same way you say the word "hate"," Kuwabara pointed out.

"They sound the same, of course I say them the same."

"But you say the word "hate" really nasally and like you're eating something sour. You don't have to say the word "date" like that too."

"Fine, I'll work on that. What am I supposed to do on one of these… Things? I've heard Botan talking about them before, but I don't understand the purpose of it."

"Well, the purpose of it is that you do something nice together and at the end of it the girl gives you a kiss."

"I have to perform tasks to be given permission to kiss my own lover?"

Kuwabara slowly shook his head.

"You just don't get it at all," he said quietly. "It's not like that."

"Then what is it? Just tell me and stop wasting my time!"

"Okay, fine! You need to take Botan somewhere special and do something with her."

"I thought I told you to stop wasting my time…"

"But that's what a date is!"

"Be more specific!"

"Take her out to dinner!"

Hiei paused, thinking over Kuwabara's answer carefully.

"And you have to ask her nicely too," Kuwabara added.

""Nicely"?" Hiei echoed.

"See even the way you say "nicely" is horrible," Kuwabara replied. "You say it the same way you say the word… "Slaughter"."

"Now you're just pissing me off."

"Okay, okay! Start by approaching her in a romantic way, and then ask her nicely to go on a date with you."

"Be more specific."

"…Approach her in a romantic way–"

"Be more specific!"

"I can't!"

"Give me an example!"

Kuwabara paused, his face changing into what Hiei supposed was a pensive look, though really all it did was make him look even more unattractive than usual.

"Okay, how about this: when she's in her room, call to her from outside and ask her out. Girls love that. It reminds them of Romeo and Juliet."

"What's a "romeo"?"

Kuwabara's face dropped.

"Well you're certainly not one," he grumbled.

"If you don't start making sense, I'm leaving," Hiei warned him. "And if I leave before you make sense, I'll tell Yukina how much I hate you and that she should stay away from you."

"That's blackmail, you heartless bastard!" Kuwabara yelled back.

"Yes, it is," Hiei replied. "We both want something from each other, so it's only fair that we both uphold our own end of the bargain, or not at all."

"That's a pretty messed up way of looking at this."

"Your contribution is a lot easier than mine. You're asking me to pretend that I don't hate you, to pretend that I don't mind you putting your dirty, clumsy hands on my sister and her child and to pretend to be happy when you eventually produce a child with her that will come out every bit as cruel and uncaring as I am! You're forcing me to watch history repeat itself through my own sister, all I'm asking of you is for the definition of this human crap you call romance! How hard is that?"

"In your case, it's virtually impossible."

"Likewise, now start talking or this deal is off!"

Kuwabara started to look panicked and Hiei found his smile again. Finally he seemed to have managed to impress the seriousness of the situation upon the idiot.

"When Botan is in her room," he said slowly. "You stand outside her window and call her to the window. When she gets there, you ask her to go out with you… Do you understand?"

"In her bedroom?" Hiei asked.

"Yes," Kuwabara replied.

"Why would I do that? If she's already in the bedroom, why wouldn't I just go in there with her?"

"Because girls like to go on dates and be treated nicely before they go to bed with a guy."

"I see… So I just stand outside the window and yell at her until she comes out?"

"No…"

Kuwabara sighed and slowly shook his head.

"You can't just yell at her," he said carefully. "Girls don't like that… It's not nice."

"Be more specific," Hiei replied.

"You know, for a guy who's really smart in a fight, you sure are stupid about life," Kuwabara complained.

"Did you just call me stupid?" Hiei growled. "I wouldn't want to have to tell Yukina that you came up here and insulted me. Again."

"Right, wait, how about this: one time, I really liked this girl at school, so I…"

Kuwabara slowly stopped, his face draining of colour.

"Um…" he said awkwardly. "Is it okay if I talk about another girl I liked before I met Yukina? I mean, I love Yukina, and it was totally different with her, but she's not the first girl I ever liked, if you know what I mean."

"If you've been with other women before my sister that makes you slightly less pathetic in my eyes," Hiei replied. "Continue."

"Okay," Kuwabara said. "So I really liked this girl, and I wanted to ask her out on a date. So I went to her house, and I threw a stone at her window to get her attention, and when she came to the window, I sang to her, and then I asked her out and she said yes."

"…I don't sing."

"You don't have to sing. You could play the guitar–"

"I don't play with anything."

"You could write some poetry–"

"I don't write anything. I don't even read anything."

"Well that explains a hell of a lot…"

"I'm getting bored. If you don't come to a point soon, I'm leaving and the deal is off."

"Okay if you won't sing or play music or read something to her, you could just tell her how beautiful you think she is. Maybe say something about what she's wearing, girls like that."

"And that would work?"

"Yeah. They say that for a man, love is about desiring a woman, but for a woman, it's about being desired by a man."

"Don't try to get clever with me."

"I'm trying to say that women like to feel pretty, and they like to know that the way they look pleases the guy they like. So just go to her room, throw a stone at the window to get her attention, and then tell her how great she looks and how much you like it. Then ask her out on a date."

Hiei nodded slowly.

"Does that make sense?" Kuwabara asked cautiously.

"It makes no sense whatsoever," Hiei replied. "But if that's what I have to do to make her happy then I'll do it."

He stood up and started to walk down the slope of the roof.

"Does this mean that you'll pretend to like me if Yukina asks?" Kuwabara called after him.

"I agree to tolerate you in her presence," Hiei replied without turning around.

"…Okay, thanks!"

Hiei hopped down to the ground, thinking over what the idiot had just told him. It seemed simple enough: throw a stone at the window, tell the woman she looked good in the clothes she wore and he liked it, ask her for a date and then take her out to dinner. Easy. And hopefully afterwards, she would be even more willing to give him what he wanted.

He walked around the outside of the temple until he found the window looking into the room he had stayed in with Botan the night before, and conveniently Botan was in there already. Hiei quickly looked about himself to find a suitable stone, eventually settling for one that was about the size of the palm of his hand – that ought to do the job, he told himself. He then turned to face the window and drew back his hand.

* * *

"You could borrow this," Botan offered, pulling out a winter coat from the closet. "I know you're a lot smaller than me, but if you roll up the sleeves you could wear it as a long coat. It is the sort of thing humans in the city will be wearing, so you would blend in better with this on."

"Okay," Yukina agreed. "Kazuma's family are so nice to me, but I don't want to look strange when I'm out with them."

"Don't worry about it," Botan assured her, flinging the coat onto her bed. "We'll come up with something just–"

Botan stopped abruptly and both she and Yukina screamed and grabbed each other, ducking down as something crashed through the bedroom window and clattered onto the floor, rolling across the room. They both stared at the rock as it came to a halt, leaving a trail of shattered glass behind it.

"Woman!" a voice yelled from outside.

"…Hiei?" Botan muttered, frowning at the broken window curiously.

There was no sign of him there, and he had sounded quite far away: Botan silently wondered what had happened to make him purposely break the window like that.

"I like that pink kimono you wear," Hiei's voice shouted, sounding no closer. "It makes me horny. Now get out here and date with me."

Botan's face dropped and Yukina gasped.

"Oh, Botan, isn't it wonderful?" she said.

"…What?" Botan asked, eying her over incredulously.

"My brother's trying to be romantic!" Yukina said with a sigh.

"Yes, he's definitely trying something…" Botan muttered, releasing Yukina and walking over to the enormous rock Hiei had hurled through the window. "By the looks of this he was trying to make a quick kill…"

She crouched down and poked a finger at the rock, which did not even move: apparently it was as heavy as it was large.

"Woman!" Hiei yelled.

Botan sighed and got to her feet again. She started to stomp towards the window but stopped when Yukina grabbed one of her sleeves.

"Botan?" she said softly.

"What?" Botan asked, keeping her eyes on the view through the broken window, which showed her Hiei standing some distance from the temple, his hands in his pockets, a slight wind tugging at his long coat and spiked hair.

"Be gentle with him."

Botan slowly turned to Yukina, her eyebrows rising up her forehead as she did so.

"Be gentle with him," Yukina said again.

"Shouldn't you be telling him to be gentle with me?" Botan asked her.

Botan was not sure what worried her more: the fact that Yukina had asked her to be gentle with Hiei or the fact that she now looked confused when Botan had asked her if she had got her question the wrong way around.

"Woman!"

"Excuse me, Yukina," Botan said, gently pulling her sleeve from Yukina's grasp.

Botan marched over to the broken window, carefully climbing through it. Hiei stayed exactly where he was, waiting for her to walk over to him, which took some time as he was surprisingly far away for having managed to break the window – all the more reason why he should not have done what he just did, Botan thought angrily.

"Are you trying to knock me out?" she demanded as she reached him.

"Yes," he flatly replied. "And it worked because you're here."

Botan frowned at him curiously but he just smirked in reply.

"I'm here because you almost bowled me over!" she said sternly.

"That's what I was trying to do!" he snapped back.

He growled in frustration before holding out a hand towards her.

"Just shut-up and date with me," he ordered.

Botan thinned her eyes at him.

"Why do you say it like that?" she asked.

Hiei did not answer her, but she could tell by the look on his face that he had not understood the question.

"You say the word "date" the same way you say the word "hate"," she explained.

Hiei growled again and stepped forwards, grabbing one of her hands and turning around. She started to complain but he took off at a brisk pace and she was forced to go with him, moving at a pace somewhere between a jog and running in order to keep up with him as he led her into the forest.

"So what are we doing on our date?" she asked, deciding that apparently she had no choice in the matter so she might as well go along with his plans.

"We're going for a walk and then we're having dinner," he replied without turning around or slowing any.

"Running along like this isn't exactly a romantic walk!" Botan pointed out.

Hiei stopped so abruptly Botan stumbled into him. She was surprised that he did not curse at her for doing so as he always had done in the past, but she took that as a sign that he was perhaps going to be a little nicer to her now that he had finally admitted his feelings for her.

"We should walk slowly and enjoy the sights around us," she said when he turned to look over his shoulder at her. "We can talk about things we see and hear. It's nice."

"Fine," he flatly replied. "I see lots of trees. I hear our footsteps."

Botan rolled her eyes.

"Not like that!" she said.

She looked about herself a few times before spotting something out of place.

"There, see?" she whispered, pointing between the trees to her left. "There's a rabbit. Doesn't it look sweet?"

Hiei grinned and cracked his knuckles.

"Perfect," he said. "It will be sweet, and that's dinner taken care of."

"Hiei, no!" Botan wailed, grabbing her arms around him to stop him as he started to take off towards the rabbit.

"What are you doing?" he grunted. "You've scared it off making all that noise!"

"Hiei, slaughtering cute fluffy animals isn't a typical thing to do on a date," she replied.

"You said it looked sweet!" he argued.

"I meant cute! I think you look sweet too, but that doesn't mean that I want to eat you for dinner tonight!"

Botan waited for Hiei to argue back, but instead he took on an unusual grin, gazing up at her in a way she had never seen him do before: but oddly his eyes were not on hers, rather they were on her lips.

"I'll eat you if you eat me," he said, slowly lifting his eyes to hers.

"Wh-what?" she echoed.

He sighed, looking slightly disappointed and then slightly annoyed.

"Oh, just shut-up and kiss me, woman," he eventually said, releasing her hand and taking her face in both of his hands.

Botan opened her mouth to protest that talking like that was not considered good date etiquette, but Hiei merely took advantage of her parted lips by sliding his tongue into her mouth. Botan let her eyes drift shut and relaxed into Hiei's kiss, the thought occurring to her that, deep down, she did not actually care if Hiei ever learned good date etiquette, because she knew that he loved her, and he was romantic in his own way without the need for dating her in the conventional sense. She started to put her arms around him but as she did so he suddenly pulled back from her, frowning at her.

"That was wrong too," he said. "We're supposed to do the date before you let me kiss you, right?"

"Hiei, there are no set rules for going on dates," Botan replied; though actually she had wanted to just tell him to forget about it and carry on kissing her.

"But Kuwabara said there were," he said.

"Kuwabara?" Botan yelped. "What does he have to do with this?"

Botan was starting to think that maybe she would be the one to kill Kuwabara instead of Hiei – how dare he interfere in her relationship with Hiei?

"Well he is "the warrior of love"," Hiei sarcastically replied.

"Oh Hiei, you know better than anybody that Kuwabara talks some right old nonsense sometimes," Botan said firmly. "There is only one rule about dates: they should be enjoyable to the people on them. What you actually do together doesn't matter, just so long as you both enjoy it."

"…So I don't have to talk about little animals like they're not just another meal?"

"Well… I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would be just as happy going for a walk in demon world, or even for a meal in demon world – even eating some of that terrible food we were served the night we ordered room service at the hotel – just so long as I get to spend some time with you. I would even watch you train with your sword… In a sort of swordfight situation… Where you maybe weren't wearing a shirt…"

Botan started to smile dreamily until she caught Hiei giving her a dark grin that made her both fearful and strangely excited.

"It's just the little things," he said quietly.

"What?" Botan asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"You don't even notice when you're really turning me on," he replied.

Botan started to get embarrassed, but then she realised why Hiei's words sounded familiar, and instead she smiled.

"Like that song," she said. "It's just the little things. Like the thought that it will always be as wild as I expect it to be."

She sighed, looking up at the sky as she allowed herself to once more consider the lyrics of that song that had been stuck in her head for so long and was so oddly relevant for her feelings about Hiei.

"I can't wait until the others leave the temple," Hiei said suddenly.

"What?" Botan asked, her head dropping back down to look him in the eye.

"Get your oar, we're going to demon world," he replied.

"N-Now?" she asked. "But why?"

"Why do you think? Get your oar."

Botan held up one hand, her oar materialising into it.

"…I'm still confused, Hiei…" she muttered as she lowered her oar down towards her legs.

"We're going to do something together that we both enjoy," he replied. "That makes a great date, right?"

"Right…"

Botan sat down onto her oar and Hiei hopped onto the blade, opting for his usual method of travelling with her.

"Take us to demon world," he said.

"Okay."

Botan lifted them up into the sky, silently wondering what she was letting herself in for.

* * *

Botan hummed her song to herself as she flew through the skies of demon world. She was waiting for Hiei to tell her to stop, since he had not actually told her where he wanted to go in demon world. He had called out a few directions to her after passing through the portal, but they were currently flying over a barren wasteland, heading towards the okunen trees the demon world tournament had employed for the preliminary round of fighting. They looked abandoned from her vantage point, but Yusuke had once told her that they were sometimes used outside of tournaments for training purposes. They were quite odd plants, Botan thought to herself: but then again, they were demon plants, and all demon plants were quite odd, something she had learnt from watching Kurama's various plants he had used in battle over the years she had known him.

Botan hummed a little louder as she started to fly through the giant trees, silently wondering why Hiei would take her to such a strange part of demon world. She was anxious but for some reason her anxiety was mostly a keen anticipation to see what Hiei had planned rather than a fear of what lay ahead of her.

"Turn left," Hiei said suddenly.

Botan obediently turned left, arcing around the perimeter of one of the enormous trees.

"Land on the next tree on your right," Hiei added.

Botan scrunched up her face, but did as he asked, taking them down to the tree he had indicated. Each tree had its own unique landscape, and this one was quite rocky and seemed to even have a small waterfall near one side. Hiei leapt down while they were still quite high from the ground, but Botan took her oar lower before jumping down herself.

"Give me your oar," Hiei said, grabbing it from her hand before she could even ask him why he wanted it.

"Why are we here?" Botan asked, following him as he moved towards the edge of the treetop.

"Because we want to be alone," he replied, planting the handle of her oar into the ground.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Making sure that we won't be disturbed," he flatly replied.

Botan started to ask him how he intended to do that but ended up crying out in alarm as he grabbed the blade of her oar in one hand and set it alight in a blaze of black flames.

"What did you do that for?" she asked.

"Anyone passing will sense my energy in those flames and stay the hell away from this tree," he replied, turning to her. "So you don't have to worry about anyone seeing us or disturbing us."

"Oh okay," she agreed.

Hiei took her hand and started to walk towards the waterfall. Botan followed after him, looking about herself curiously. At least it was warmer in demon world, she thought. As they neared the waterfall they moved into a small gathering of flowering trees, apparently of a different variety from the okunen tree they were growing on top of.

"So what exactly are we going to do here?" Botan asked, peering through the smaller trees at the rock formation the waterfall cascaded over.

Hiei stopped abruptly and Botan barely managed to stop herself from stumbling into him. She heard him sigh and he then released her hand. Keeping his back turned to her he took off his scarf and coat and threw them down onto the ground.

"Not that it's not lovely here," she added.

It was very pretty, she thought, and a nice place for a picnic, perhaps.

"What's the matter?" Hiei asked, turning to face her, his face suggesting that he was at the end of his patience with her, though she had no idea why. "Do you need to be shown everything like a stupid person does?"

Botan gasped indignantly at him using her own words against her.

"Well, since you were kind enough to show me what you wanted to tell me two nights ago, let me return the favour and show you what I want to tell you," he said.

He reached out and roughly grabbed one of her wrists, pulling her hand towards him. He held her wrist by one of his thighs and pressed his other hand against the back of her hand, pushing her hand and fingers against his groin. Her jaw slowly dropped open and her eyes grew large as her fingers and palm moulded around the substantial girth and length of his arousal, obvious even through the fabric of his pants.

"Understand now?" he asked, giving her a lop-sided smirk that sent a rush of desire through her chest.

She nodded and let him take her hand in his once more.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Is just PWP. Many times over. A whole chapter of it. Seriously. Skip it if you're offended by smut. Plot resumes/concludes in chapter 47. **Chapter 46: The Private Emotion**


	46. The Private Emotion

**Recap:** Hiei bonded with Megumi, Hiei stopped Yusuke and Kuwabara from bullying Botan, Hiei tried to learn about dating from Kuwabara (and agreed to be more civil towards Kuwabara for Yukina's sake) and finally (oh hell, finally!) he took Botan to demon world to have his wicked way with her.

* * *

 **Chapter 46: The Private Emotion**

 _When your soul is tired and your heart is weak  
Do you think of live as a one-way street?  
Well is runs both ways, open up your eyes  
Can't you see me here, how can you deny?  
It's a private emotion that fills you tonight  
And a silence falls between us  
As the shadows steal the light  
And wherever you may find it  
Wherever it may lead  
Let your private emotion come to me  
Every endless night has a dawning day  
Every darkest sky has a shining ray  
It takes a lot to laugh as your tears go by  
But you can find me here 'til your tear run dry  
(Private Emotion, by Ricky Martin)_

Hiei pulled Botan's hand forwards and she stumbled a step closer to him. He reached his other hand up to the back of her neck, his skin as warm as always against hers, and brought his lips to hers. She could feel that he was making an effort to be gentle with her, but at the same time she could sense an urgent need in every touch. Botan gladly slid her free arm around him to hold him closer. She was still a little nervous about what lay ahead of her – especially since she was in demon world and on top of an okunun tree that was usually only used for battles to the death – but deep down she knew that she wanted and needed to be with Hiei right then every bit as much as he wanted to be with her. Possibly even more so.

Hiei released her hand and both of his hands were shortly buried in the bow of her obi, once more untying it. Botan expected him to go through the strange liking he had for removing her clothing slowly, but to her surprise he loosened and threw aside her obi quite quickly, and barely seconds later he had taken off her pink kimono and thrown it over his previously discarded coat. His lips moved from hers and he began trailing kisses along her jaw.

"Oh Hiei," she moaned softly.

He growled into her neck at the sound of her voice and began pulling off her white kimono. She made no complaints at first but when he moved swiftly and she saw the garment falling on top of their combined pile of removed clothing she tensed slightly. Things seemed to be moving very fast and she was not really sure that she wanted to be naked out in the open in the middle of demon world after all.

"Relax," Hiei whispered, apparently sensing her apprehension. "We're completely alone up here."

"It is very pretty up here," Botan mused.

She looked over at the waterfall, feeling Hiei moving her arms around his shoulders.

"Hold on," he said.

"What?"

Botan yelped, grabbing at Hiei's shirt desperately as he suddenly grabbed the backs of her thighs and lifted her off the ground. He stepped forwards and knelt down, placing her down onto their clothing. She continued to hold on until he had laid her onto her back, only then opening her fingers and relaxing her hands against his shoulders. To her surprise he pulled her arms down, but as he gave her a smirk and started to remove his shirt she forgave his actions, relaxing back into the warmth of his coat beneath her to admire his chest as he bared it to her. She let her eyes rove over every indentation of well-defined muscle, delighting in the way the sinews of his shoulders and arms flexed as he balled up his shirt and tossed it aside. His smirk widened slightly and Botan distinctly saw his eyes change, a confident lust dilating them as he regarded her. The thought that she had such an effect on him made her quiver all over and she held out her arms to him, smiling as he collapsed into her embrace with an animalistic growl of pleasure.

Hiei nuzzled into Botan's neck, pressing his lips against the skin just below her ear before hungrily kissing his way down her neck, his hands sliding down ahead of his mouth, pulling open her yukata to expose more of her skin. As his hands reached her chest they glided outwards and he began messaging her breasts. Botan moaned out in pleasure, her body moving instinctively, her back arching to push herself into his touch. Between her movements and the slight tugging of his fingers, the front of Botan's yukata began opening wider, slipping off her shoulders and baring her upper body completely. At first she felt self-conscious about being so exposed outdoors, but Hiei's hands were soon exploring her body, his lips following their movements, causing a wave of longing to wash over her and she quickly forgot about where they were and even who they were: nothing mattered to her any more but that one moment with him.

Botan closed her eyes and again relaxed into the piles of clothing beneath her, tilting her head back and simply doing something Hiei had suggested to her before: letting go of her inhibitions and truly losing herself in her own desire. With her eyes closed she found herself concentrating more on the feel of Hiei's hands, fingers and lips as they travelled over her skin and she started to breathe harder and heavier, occasional moans escaping from her lips as he passed over a particularly sensitive spot. Her body jerked slightly when he pressed the palms of his hands to her abdomen and pushed his thumbs under the elastic of her panties, slowly dragging them outwards towards her hips. As he bunched his hands around her panties at her sides she began to feel an ache between her legs, a need for him that was taking her over. She wondered if he felt that way about her – if what he had "showed" her earlier was any indication then she supposed that he must – and she wondered how long he had felt that way.

"You understand what I intend to do to you, don't you?" he asked suddenly.

Botan opened her eyes and tilted her chin downwards, the sight of Hiei holding onto her underwear and looking up at her with eyes that seemed almost as pained as she felt causing another fluttering of desire to rush through her chest.

"Y-yes," she answered.

"Good," he replied, sighing out a warm breath over her stomach. "Because once I've started, I won't be able to stop."

Botan felt a little confused at his last words: she thought that he had already started what he had intended to do to her, so what had he meant?

"It's okay," she said, her voice light and breathy despite her best attempts to sound firm in her convictions. "I want this, Hiei."

Hiei smiled and growled at her words, his grip tightening before his hands began moving downwards, taking Botan's panties with them. Botan closed her eyes again, the feeling of being completely naked and exposed to the open air making her blush. She trusted Hiei that they would not be caught by anyone, but that did not change the facts: she was a ferry girl and she lying on the ground outside naked, in demon world, asking a demon for something quite debauched.

"Open your eyes and look at me," Hiei warned her as he finally pulled her underwear from around her ankles.

"I can't!" she wailed.

"Fine then."

Botan frowned but did not open her eyes. She felt Hiei moving away from her and when he broke all contact with her she started to grow a little suspicious: but the sound of buckles opening and fabric rustling erased the doubt from her mind. Slowly she inched her eyes open, drawing in a slow, shuddering gasp as she caught sight of Hiei standing before her completely naked. Of course, she had seen him with no clothes on before – the first time being after the preliminary round of the demon world tournament when she had found him in a healing chamber and the second time being in Kurama's apartment the night the two had gone there together – but in the first instance he had been unconscious and sedate and in the second instance she had not really noticed the more intimate areas of his body as he had not displayed them before her so openly. The difference between unconscious, healing chamber-contained Hiei and conscious, aroused Hiei was staggering. Botan wondered how his pants had managed to contain him.

He grinned at her response before kneeling down and putting a hand on each of her knees, pushing them apart. She was so stunned at what she had just seen she did not register what was happening until she felt the heat of his length pressed against her. She stopped breathing and her eyes grew larger, which seemed to only further please Hiei, who grinned wider and slowly leaned over her, bringing his face closer to hers.

"Botan," he said, his voice surprisingly soft.

"Hiei?" she replied, finding her breath again.

He seemed like he was going to say something to her but he stopped, his grin faltering slightly and a flicker of emotion passing over his crimson eyes. He looked slightly troubled by something, as though he could not find the words he needed to express himself or else he simply did not understand what he was really feeling. However he soon recovered the moment by moving closer still and kissing her lightly on the lips. She relaxed into his affectionate gesture, and the feeling of his bare skin pressed so closely against hers began to feel divine. She smiled as he pulled from her, musing that she had, not so very long ago, been terrified of him, but now she adored him with all of her being. He put one hand at the back of one of her knees and curled his other arm under one of her arms to rest his hand on her shoulder. She melted into his hold, even thrilling at the sensation of his fingers gripping into her to reaffirm his hold. She moaned and closed her eyes blissfully as his hips moved against hers, and shortly she felt him pressing against her. She heard him make a small grunt and the grip of his fingers on her shoulder and leg became almost painful before he thrust his hips forwards, entering her suddenly and completely.

Botan eyes were suddenly wide open and her mouth was forming out a silent scream: the pain of his movement had felt like a white-hot knife had been stabbed into her, and her body tensing around it was doing little to help her pain. She moved her eyes to Hiei's face, seeing he had his eyes closed and teeth bared, and he looked almost as strained as she felt. She closed her eyes again, sobbing softly as tears burned in her eyes. She could hear Hiei's breathing was rough and ragged and he felt taut in her arms.

"I'm so close," he whispered.

Botan wanted to ask what he meant, but her entire body was locked in place as she considered that any movement she made might only aggravate the pain of Hiei inside of her. He pushed his hips forwards a little, moving deeper into her and she finally found her voice, crying out in pain and protest as her body struggled and stretched to accommodate him. He stopped again, his face moving to hers.

"I didn't want to hurt you," he said before gently kissing away a tear escaping her eye. "But I want you so badly…"

He slid his hips back slightly and Botan lightly groaned out a sigh of relief as some of his length slid back out of her, easing the tension in her body. She started to feel a little disappointed in herself, she started to worry that she was not good enough to satisfy Hiei, and the thought only made more tears well up in her eyes. Hiei softly kissed her cheek again and an instant later Botan forgot all about her guilt as he plunged back into her, this time driving himself into her much further, completely sheathing his length within her. She cried out in pain again and he groaned out in pleasure. Botan felt betrayed: she loved Hiei and she had been patient and understanding with his inexperience of love, why then was he being so harsh and cruel with her now?

He began thrusting into her in a series of uncontrolled, instinctual twitches of his hips. She sobbed openly, inwardly cursing her own body for desiring this, her own misinformed human instincts that had sought it out. She gripped her fingers into Hiei's skin, almost wanting to hurt him if only to make him feel as bad as she did.

But then something slowly began to change. Botan felt a flutter in her abdomen that steadily grew in intensity, spreading into her thighs and chest and soon leaving her short of breath. Her fingers relaxed their grip and her eyes slid closed, every breath she released turning into a primal moan, her body jerking against Hiei's thrusts on an instinct she had never thought that she would possess. She surrendered herself entirely to the sensations that were becoming increasingly intense, as though building to something wonderful, something that she was both anxious to reach and longing to prolong. Hiei's movements suddenly became less certain and he snarled out before dropping his head onto her shoulder and stilling his body entirely.

Botan slowly opened her eyes, frowning slightly as it felt as though Hiei was deflating inside of her, and within seconds he had slid back out of her entirely.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he said breathlessly, his voice muffled against her skin. "I just couldn't wait any longer…"

"But…" Botan said. "I…"

"It won't always hurt," Hiei added, lifting his head enough to look her in the eye. "You'll adapt, and then you'll start to enjoy it too."

"But I…" Botan began. "I was enjoying it at the end there, but then you just stopped!"

Hiei's eyebrows shot upwards, disappearing beneath his bandana.

"…That's what you're worried about?" he asked. "I just… And the only thing you're upset about is that you didn't…?"

Botan sighed and pouted, feeling almost tearful again in sheer frustration.

"It felt like I was close to something," she moaned. "I just wanted to feel it. Why did you stop?"

Hiei's face changed again.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been denying myself?" he growled. "I couldn't even think about being with anyone else once I'd set my mind on you. I maybe didn't just perform at my best, but that was months of restraint bursting out of me!"

Botan softened slightly, giving him a small nod.

"Oh, I see," she said lightly. "I had no idea…"

"I got this stupid idea in my mind one day that I could only ever find true satisfaction if I acted out of love and not just lust," Hiei added. "I don't know where it came from, but it was overwhelming, and soon I couldn't think about even looking at anyone else but you. It almost felt like I had no choice in it, like I had to be with you and only you… Is that part of this love thing?"

Botan chewed on her lip to contain herself from answering Hiei honestly. His words did suggest that he was in love with her, but she suspected that they also indicated that the strange twin bond he shared with Yukina was affecting his thoughts and actions again. Shizuru had speculated that Yukina projected her emotions onto Hiei, and it had been since falling pregnant that Yukina had decided to become intimate with Kuwabara, something she claimed had only felt right because they had acted out of true love – which sounded alarmingly like what Hiei was trying to explain to her now.

"Um, yes," she eventually said, since Hiei was still glaring at her expectantly. "Yes, that is what love does to you."

He nodded and slumped back down against her, his hands freeing her hair of its ties and his lips kissing slightly haphazardly at her neck.

"I'm sorry," Botan added, putting her arms around him and snuggling into him. "I didn't mean to complain. It did really hurt at first, but it got easier, and we'll have other times to get it right."

"Other times?" Hiei grunted.

"Yes," Botan replied. "We'll do this again, of course."

"Of course."

"Tonight was just the first time. It will get better every time, right?"

"…Tonight?"

Hiei started to chuckle, his chest rubbing against Botan's breasts in a way that would have been quite pleasurable if she was not so concerned about why he was laughing.

"I just…" she began. "Hiei, you're not going to leave me now that you've…?"

Botan found herself clutching him tighter: he was not going to leave her. She would have herself surgically attached to him if necessary to stop him leaving her.

"There will be other nights like this one," he said, his voice thick with lust and a hint of something dark and dangerous. "But tonight isn't over yet."

"Wh-what?" Botan echoed, shivering slightly as he dragged his fingers down her sides. "But you've finished…"

"Finished?" he repeated, snorting amusedly. "Woman, I haven't even started."

Botan started to ask Hiei what he meant but stopped short as he nipped at her neck and purposefully moved his hips against her, the feeling of his hardening member against her thigh quickly making his meaning only too clear to her.

"H-Hiei…" she gasped.

"I don't want to hurt you, but if you want more, I won't deny you," he said. "Tell me what you want."

"I… I want you, Hiei," she replied. "Please… Please I want more…"

Hiei chuckled again, moving his hands to Botan's, taking each of her hands in each of his and pushing her arms down on either side of her head. He leaned forwards to kiss her passionately and quite forcefully, his demonic energy rising around him. Botan counter-acted his response by releasing some of her own spirit energy, the feeling of the two energies mingling in the air around them only heightening the feel of every touch and movement Hiei made. When she felt him once more pressing against her she momentarily worried that she might feel the same pain she had the first time he had entered her: but her fears quickly vanished when he slid into her and she felt only the tingling friction of his thick length parting her tender flesh.

Botan moaned against Hiei's lips and she was sure she felt him smiling against hers. The good feelings she had experienced towards the end of their previous session started almost immediately, and heightened in intensity much quicker than before. Hiei's thrusts were slower than the first time around, but also longer and deeper: and as a tension began building in Botan she found her body jerking, her hips pushing up towards him to meet him. He lifted his head slightly, their lips parting, looking down at her. Seeing the look on his face alone was almost enough to send Botan over the edge.

"Please…" she moaned out quietly.

"What?" he asked, maintaining his rhythm with ease.

He seemed a lot more in control of his movements this time, but she was starting to become desperate for her need to reach that something her body seemed to be nearing every time he moved inside of her.

"Faster…" she eventually managed to say.

Hiei's grin widened slightly and he slowly shook his head. Botan wanted to tell him that he should listen to her, but seeing how confident he was, knowing that he was completely in control of her at that moment, that the time and extent of her own satisfaction was entirely in his hands sent a rush of desire through her and suddenly she reached what she had been so desperate for. She threw her head back and cried out, this time in pure ecstasy, the sound becoming ragged before fading to a soft, steady whimper as Hiei continued his pace, moving in and out of her relentlessly, just as slowly and as firmly as before.

Botan tried to ask him how long he intended to carry on, but she could not form words, her entire body tensing and quivering beneath him. Every touch felt more intimate after her first climax, which made her build towards the second one come upon her faster and feel all the more intense. As she reached that sweet release a second time Hiei began moving faster and harder, eventually groaning and shuddering, his movements becoming uncertain before he finally collapsed against her again.

Botan was panting heavily, every breath sounding unnaturally loud to even her own ears. She was exhausted, hot and coated in sweat: but she had never felt better in her very long existence. She tried to smile but even the muscles in her face were still twitching and so she contented for rubbing her cheek against Hiei's head.

"…Fuck…" he muttered into her chest.

"No Hiei," she managed to reply. "Love making."

Hiei slowly lifted his head until his eyes were on hers, his head tilting slightly. He had the sort of look on his face that usually preceded a cutting remark like "shut-up, foolish woman", and whilst Botan did not want to hear him say such a thing at such a moment, she lacked the energy to argue with him, so she simply held his gaze and waited for him to speak.

"Hn," he eventually grunted. "Hn-hn."

Botan started to frown, unsure if her senses were deceiving her or not: was it possible to hallucinate after a very intense session of passionate love making, she wondered? But as Hiei continued to laugh, louder and harder, she started to think that maybe it was real. And, as she thought about what they had both just said, she started to find the situation funny too. She started giggling along with him, finding as much amusement and delight in seeing him so relaxed and happy as in what had made him laugh to begin with.

"Oh, Hiei!" she said, wriggling her arms out from under his hands. "You see? Isn't it nice being happy instead of wallowing in misery?"

She reached up to take his face in her hands. He stopped laughing at her words at the contact and his smile faded, but the sparkle of joy was still present in his eyes and that was good enough for Botan.

"It's…" he said quietly. "Confusing for me."

"Confusing?" she echoed, sliding her hands into his hair. "What do you mean?"

"A creature like me was never meant to be happy," he replied. "I was not even allowed to wish for happiness, but… Being with you…"

"I feel confused sometimes too when we're together," she said, playing her fingers through the length of his hair. "But as long as we are together, I know that it will be okay… So no more running away from me, mister runaway!"

"Hn."

Hiei eased himself back down to lie on top of her, leaning a little more of his weight on her than was comfortable, but she allowed it for the joy of just being able to hold him and feel every inch of his bare skin against hers.

"I trust you," she said, closing her eyes. "I know you'll come back to me."

"What makes you so sure?" he asked.

"I know that you love me, and I know that you honour every agreement you make," she answered.

"Hn, yes, I can promise you there will be many more nights like this for us."

"And tonight isn't over yet?"

Hiei made a small noise of confusion and his entire body twitched in Botan's arms.

"…That plant was right about you…" he said slowly. "You really are a nymphomaniac… But you're the worst kind: you're a secret nymphomaniac!"

"That's not fair!" Botan protested. "I don't want to do naughty things with just anyone! I just want to do naughty things with you!"

"…So you're my own personal nymphomaniac?"

"…Stop using that word…"

"…No."

"Meanie."

"…Just shut up and kiss me, woman."

Hiei lifted his head and pushed it down again, his lips almost clumsily pressing against Botan's. She gladly moulded her lips to his, clawing her fingers in his hair and curling one leg around the backs of his knees. They kissed slowly and deeply for several minutes and it was then that Botan realised just how remote they were: all she could hear was Hiei's breath and her own, the gentle waterfall at her side and the faint thunderclaps of the distant storms that perpetually raged across the plains of demon world. In that moment, she felt that demon world was the most beautiful and magical of all three worlds: which was quite ridiculous, and yet delightful to think about. Without demon world, after all, Hiei would not exist, and without Hiei, she would never have known the joy that she now did.

As the kiss ended, he tilted his chin and rested his forehead against hers. She realised then that, although they were both naked, Hiei was still wearing his bandana around his head and the warding bandage over his right arm. Her hands were still in his hair and moving her fingers around a little she soon managed to loosen his bandana and pull it over his head. He lifted his head, his face changing in shock, but she managed to pull the bandana from him and throw it away before he could protest.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking down at her curiously.

"I trust you, I want you to trust me," she replied, moving her hands to the bandages around his right arm.

"I do trust you," he hurriedly replied, snatching his arm out of her reach. "I don't trust myself. You should be more careful."

"Hiei, I gave myself to you completely, I want you to return the favour."

Hiei grumbled out a noise that might have been a protest, but Botan did not bother trying to decipher it, instead focussing her attention on unravelling the bandage from his fingers and hand, gradually working her way past his wrist and up his arm. He did not try to pull his arm from her or to push her hands away, so she assumed that, despite his initial protests, he did not mind her continuing her actions. Once she had the bandage free she took the time to study the black dragon marking around his arm. She had never had the opportunity to study it before, since he usually only showed it briefly before launching an attack, and usually she was a considerable distance from him at such a time. She held his hand in her left hand and lightly touched the fingers of her right hand to the dragon's head on the back of his hand, tracing the outline of it curiously. She had expected the skin stained by the dragon's mark to feel different somehow, but it did not. She could feel a small tingle as she dragged her fingers around his arm, moving up the length of the dragon's body, but she was unsure if that came from the dragon or from the thrill of touching the arm he usually kept covered up.

As she passed Hiei's elbow, his bicep visibly twitched beneath her fingers and he growled quietly. Botan paused, her fingers still on the body of the dragon, and she moved her eyes to his. He was watching her intently, and there was something indescribable in his eyes. He looked especially exposed at that moment as his forehead was bare and visible to her eyes – though his jagan eye was closed – and Botan almost felt closer to him and as though this moment was more intimate than what had come before it. She started to ask him if he was alright but stopped short as her eyes wandered lower and caught sight of his steadily growing erection.

"…Hiei?" she said softly, looking up at him again. "How many times can you do this in one day?"

"As many as you can handle," he growled back. "And then once more."

Botan's jaw slowly dropped open. She was stiff all over and a little afraid, but she let Hiei ease her back down onto her back and settle down on top of her again.

"Oh Hiei," she groaned as he pushed her legs further apart with his knees.

"Oh Botan," he groaned back.

* * *

Kuwabara, Kurama, Yusuke, Keiko, Shizuru and Yukina were sat around a table in Genkai's temple, nearing the end of another round of poker. Kuwabara was losing terribly. He was no expert at the game, but he could usually at least win once in an evening of playing. But that night, he had been making stupid mistakes and he could barely concentrate on the game at all. The others all began laying down their cards, and Kuwabara dumbly copied their actions, barely noticing the exasperated looks he got from Kurama, Yusuke and Shizuru.

"Hey, Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled at him. "What the hell is this?"

Yusuke picked up something from amongst Kuwabara's hand of cards that looked like the remote for the television. Maybe he had been holding it with his cards, but Kuwabara could not be sure. He could not really be sure of anything at all that night, since something quite strange had been going on for the last few hours.

Yukina was staring at him in a way that made him blush just to think about, and the misty glaze of lust and longing that was clouding her eyes was becoming heavier with every passing minute: and whilst it was very flattering to have the woman he loved looking at him that way, it was also scary, pressurising and wholly unexpected.

"Well anyway, I'm going to uh…" he said awkwardly. "Um… Feed the fish…"

"You already did that," Shizuru reminded him. "And it's dark outside now."

"Yeah, I'll get the light food," he muttered, pushing back his chair and clattering one knee against the underside of the table as he tried to stand.

He apologised and limped from his chair, quickly leaving the room. He had no idea where he was going or why, but he found his feet taking him up the stairs. He was so distracted by his own confusion he did not hear or sense someone following him until a hand grabbed one of his ankles and pulled his leg out from under him. He fell forwards helplessly with a groan, but did not stay there long as two hands grabbed at the material of his shirt, pulling at him and rolling him onto his back.

"Yukina?" he yelped as she dropped onto him, the gleam in her eye almost predatory.

Kuwabara was still a little afraid of the look on his usually sweet and innocent lover's face, but he did not have to look at it for long as she swooped down and caught his lips in a kiss that was surprisingly aggressive for her, her hands grabbing into his shoulders and pressing him down against the stairs almost painfully. Her kiss was brief, dominating and demanding, and as she lifted her head he distinctly felt her teeth on his lower lip, squeezing almost hard enough to break the skin.

"Y-Yukina…?" he whimpered, looking up at her curiously.

She grinned at him again and a white glow appeared in her eyes before she dropped down against him and began kissing him anywhere she could reach: his lips, his forehead, his cheeks, his neck and his ears.

"Maybe we should get a room…" he suggested.

Yukina growled in a way that made him slightly afraid and worryingly aroused and then she got to her feet, grabbing one of his hands in both of hers and hauling him to his feet. She started to drag him back downstairs, and although he had no idea where she was taking him, he did not bother questioning what she was doing: he just hoped that he lived through whatever she had planned.

* * *

Hiei lifted his head, blinking curiously down at Botan. She was asleep, her limbs sprawled and her hair wild about her head. Her body was still glistening with sweat and her face was still slightly pink from their earlier exertions, and apparently exhaustion had simply overcome her, since she had been talking to him only a few minutes earlier. He smoothed the flats of his hands over her stomach, partly for the joy of feeling her skin against his and partly to reaffirm that she was real and that she was actually there with him. A part of him was still shocked that the perfectly good girl from spirit world had actually consented to joining him in demon world for sex.

As Botan was asleep, Hiei was alone with his thoughts, and although there were many things he knew he probably ought to be thinking about, only one thing lingered in his mind. When he had fought Mukuro at the first demon world tournament, she had accused him of wanting to belong to something and she had told him that he was still looking for something, something more than just his missing hiruiseki and his twin sister. At the time he had not really understood what she meant, though he had suspected that she was talking about love and friendship. He had been almost offended that she would accuse him of wanting such things, but now, as he lay with Botan at his side, he began thinking that maybe Mukuro had been right all along.

Sappy romance – like the nonsense Kuwabara did for Yukina and even Yusuke occasionally did for his woman – had always disgusted Hiei, and it mostly still did. He had never really thought that maybe love could be about a partnership, about being with someone who simply made him feel accepted and contented. He had especially never thought that such a feeling could be found with someone so different from himself as Botan was. He thought that maybe he was starting to understand it a little better now though. Maybe it was not a weakness, maybe it was not something ridiculous and maybe it did have an important place in his life. As Hiei looked down at Botan again he smiled in spite of himself. One thing was for sure: this was where he belonged, and this was what he had been looking for, without ever really knowing it.

Maybe one day he would tell Botan that. He felt unable to put his thoughts and feelings towards into words that even he would want to listen to, but he thought that maybe one day he would be able to tell her how right she made love seem. Or maybe he never would: but he would certainly be sure to always show her how much he appreciated having her at his side.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** Koenma calls the gang together again (via Botan) for a new mission that means a sense of déjà vu for Yusuke and a slight headache for Kurama. **Chapter 47: The Reunion**

 **A/N:** That's right, more recycling of old material in the next chapter – done mainly for comparative purposes. And then that's it, this fic is over at last!


	47. The Reunion 2

**Recap:** Oh it was just so much porn. Hiei and Botan finally did it, after hundreds of thousands of words and countless half-assed attempts, it finally happened. And… That was about it really.

* * *

 **Chapter 47: The Reunion**

"Knock, knock!"

Yusuke half-opened one eye, casting it in the direction of the open door. Against the glow of the rising sunlight that was spilling into the room he could see the silhouette of a slender female, one arm in the air, her fist wiggling back and forth as though she was knocking on an invisible door.

"Haven't seen you in a long time, Botan," he said, closing his eye again. "What's up?"

He heard Botan walk into the room, her feet clicking lightly against the wooden floor. She moved around him in a circle, gradually slowing as she went, as though fascinated by her surroundings and gradually becoming distracted by them.

"Botan!" he snapped, opening his eyes.

She jerked to a halt in front of him and grinned sheepishly.

"You came here by yourself?" he asked with a small frown, as the realisation dawned on him that she looked a little harried and was, unusually, on her own.

"Yes," she said, holding up one finger in the air. "I hope I'm not disturbing you, Yusuke…"

Yusuke dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand, standing up and silently deciding that he could afford to miss meditation that morning.

"What's up?" he asked again.

"Isn't it a lovely day outside?" Botan responded. "Can you believe it was a year ago today that you were drawing lots for the demon world tournament? How times flies!"

Yusuke narrowed his eyes slightly, suspicion taking seed in the back of his mind. Botan's nonsensical statement, along with her inability to look him directly in the eye, her slightly strained tone and the slight tensing of her shoulders told him that she was there for more than just a friendly visit.

"Botan?" he said slowly, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at her in a way that warned her she needed to come to her point, and quickly.

"How are you, Yusuke?" she asked, meeting his eyes at last, but with a grin that looked almost painful.

"I'm busy, Botan," he frankly replied. "I just came here to check on things, I have to leave soon, I start work in less than an hour. Why are you here?"

"Lord Koenma sent me," she said.

Yusuke managed to keep his groan silent, but was unable to stop one eyebrow from twisting upwards.

"He has some… Big news for everyone," she continued. "It's about demon world."

"I thought the little brat was keeping his nose out of demon world affairs these days?" Yusuke asked, watching Botan carefully for her response to his words.

"You're right of course!" Botan hurriedly replied, smiling sweetly up at him. "But the problem is, this isn't just about demon world…"

Yusuke arched his eyebrows expectantly, but Botan hesitated before continuing.

"There are humans involved too," she eventually said.

"So what does Koenma expect me to do about it?" Yusuke asked bluntly.

"Well, he's asked me to gather everyone together here so that we can come up with a plan," Botan replied.

"Everyone?" Yusuke repeated.

"Yes. You know, the old team!"

Botan swung a fist through the air in a gung-ho fashion, still grinning a little too fervently for Yusuke's liking.

"It's too early in the morning for this crap…" he grumbled, stifling a yawn.

"Won't you please at least meet here with the others to hear what Lord Koenma has to say to you?" Botan pleaded.

"Sure, but I can't make it back until later," Yusuke conceded. "After eight tonight."

"Perfect!" Botan said cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "I'll make sure that everybody else comes here for eight o'clock! Don't be late!"

Yusuke forced a smile as Botan waved him a goodbye and hurried back outside. Before she had reached the garden beyond the doorway she had already summoned her oar and leapt up onto it, shortly zipping off upwards and away from the temple. He was almost certain Koenma was scheming something by asking for his help, since King Enma had made it painfully clear that Yusuke was no longer to be a part of the affairs of spirit world.

But what was it this time, he thought miserably?

* * *

"Knock, knock!"

Kuwabara groaned, lifting his face up and blinking back the vestiges of sleep. He squinted around his surroundings, finding himself alone in his dorm room, his roommate unsurprisingly absent. Apparently he had fallen asleep at his study desk, something he had done more often than he cared to remember lately.

"Oh dear, working hard or hardly working, Kuwabara?"

He grunted at the overly chipper voice at his side, twitching as something peeled off the side of his face. He turned in the direction of the sensation, finding a familiar face grinning at him whilst holding up a piece of paper with only one line of handwriting decorating its surface.

"Botan?" he muttered.

He looked about himself again, confirming that he was definitely in his dorm room before eying her over sceptically.

"Have I missed something?" he asked her.

"I think you missed the point of that book…" Botan replied, reading the single line he had written onto the piece of paper he had then apparently fallen asleep on and had stuck to his face when he awoke.

"Hey!" he moaned, snatching the paper back from her. "What are you doing here? This is the boys' dorm!"

Botan grinned and rocked on her heels but remained infuriatingly silent.

"I have term finals soon, I'm busy," he added, replacing the page she had taken from him to his desk.

"Lord Koenma asked me to gather the old team, and he specifically asked for you, Kuwabara!" Botan sang.

"Koenma asked for me?" Kuwabara repeated, pointing at himself and widening his eyes in surprise.

Botan nodded.

"Does he want me to be the new spirit detective?" he asked.

She shook her head and his face fell.

"There's a little something going on, and Lord Koenma just wants to make sure it doesn't turn into a big something," she said cryptically.

"I don't like the sound of this…" he said slowly. "Is Urameshi involved?"

Botan paused, her face unreadable for a moment, before a slightly devious glint passed over her pink eyes.

"Lord Koenma asked me to gather everyone at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock," she slowly replied. "Yukina will be there and so will Megumi, and if you don't show up they'll be so disappointed, especially after I promised them both that you would be there…"

Kuwabara grinned like a goof for a moment before hurriedly regaining his composure.

"I'm really busy with my studies, but since it's for Lord Koenma, I suppose I could be there," he replied, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Excellent!" Botan replied. "Don't be late!"

"Okay…"

Kuwabara twisted around in his chair, watching with a curious frown as Botan left his room again, almost walking directly into a male student who was exiting the shared bathroom, clad only in a towel that was tied loosely around his waist.

"Oopsie!" she said to him, grinning and hopping to one side to avoid colliding with him.

"Strange…" Kuwabara muttered to himself.

Still, he reasoned, before Botan had been sent for him, Koenma had probably already summoned Yusuke, and things were always interesting when Yusuke was around. He wondered what madness they would face this time.

* * *

"Knock, knock!"

"Goodness, Botan!"

Kurama blinked repeatedly in disbelief at the girl knocking on the desk in front of him and taking a seat next to him in the lecture theatre. Once he was certain that he was not imagining things, he glanced about himself, seeing other students slowly filing into the seats around them and the professor entering by the podium, briefcase in hand.

"Botan, what are you doing here?" he whispered, turning to her with a frown.

"Lord Koenma sent me!" she cheerfully replied.

"Lord Ko…"

Kurama's voice trailed off as he caught several passing students eying him curiously from the row behind where he sat.

"Lord Koenma?" he repeated, lowering his voice and leaning closer to her. "What does he want with me?"

"He's asked me to–"

"Botan please, lower your voice!"

"Oopsie!"

Botan clapped her fingers over her mouth and glanced about nervously.

"I'm sorry Kurama!" she hissed as her fingers slid from her lips.

"That's alright, but please tell me quickly, this class is about to start, and we can't talk once the lecture begins," Kurama replied.

Botan nodded her understanding.

"Lord Koenma wants us all to meet at Genkai's temple tonight at eight o'clock, it's very important that you come," she continued, being mindful to keep her voice to a whisper.

"I have classes until six," Kurama whispered back. "What is all this about?"

"There's a small problem he wants to discuss with the old team."

Kurama nodded, glancing down at the front of the hall, seeing that the professor was removing his coat, apparently only moments away from calling the room to attention.

"I'll be there," he whispered to Botan.

"Thanks Kurama!" she said brightly. "I knew that I could count on you!"

Kurama cringed as she blurted out her words in a raised voice again, attracting more attention in their direction.

"Oh, hey Hana!" one of Kurama's classmates said, leaning over the desk in the row behind them. "Haven't seen you in a long time!"

"Hello!" Botan replied, grinning awkwardly and waving sheepishly at the girl.

"Oh Hana!" another girl said, waving back at her. "Did you just call Shuichi "Kurama"? What's up with that? Isn't that the name of a sumo wrestler?"

"No!" another girl said. "It's like as in Mount Kurama! That famous swordsman Minamoto trained there, remember? And Shuichi's name is Minamoto, get it?"

The other girls shook their heads.

"They're kinda dorky!" a fourth girl whispered loudly. "I heard him calling her "Botan" – see, that means peony, and his speciality is peonies, remember that project he did for the botanical garden last year? It's all really complicated and super lame!"

"Oh dear…" Botan muttered, looking around the girls worriedly

"Goodbye Botan," Kurama said to her.

She tilted her head at him curiously, but he simply squared his jaw and narrowed his eyes.

"Oopsie!" she said meekly. "I think the girls don't think you're as cool as they used to…"

She grinned nervously, but Kurama's expression remained unchanged.

"So…" she said, rocking on her heels awkwardly. "I'll see you at eight tonight?"

Kurama nodded and Botan waved to him before hurrying off again. Kurama watched on silently as she moved against the current of bodies entering the hall, spouting apologies as she inadvertently bumped into a few shoulders as she went. Once she was out of sight he let out a small sigh of relief and returned his attention to the front of the room, silently wondering what could possibly have happened this time to cause Lord Koenma to call together his former team of spirit detectives – again.

* * *

"Aw, fuck, no!"

Two S class demons cringed and crept from their posts guarding the gates of Mukuro's fortress. It was not long before others were joining them, dropping what they were doing to hurriedly sneak off.

"What's going on?" a young A class demon asked, approaching the guard who had cried out and started the mass exodus that was in progress.

"Do you know who Hiei is?" the guard asked.

"The three-eyed fire demon who works as Mukuro's advisor?" the younger demon asked.

"Yeah, that's the one," the guard confirmed. "His woman's on her way here. If you know what's good for you, you'll find a place to hide until she leaves again."

"Hiei's woman?" the younger demon echoed. "Wow! What sort of woman is she?"

"Stick around if you want to find out. Don't if you want to remain sane."

The younger demon tilted his head curiously, stopping in the centre of the training yard, watching as a sea of bodies drained out of it through various doorways and stairwells. Soon he was the only one left bar the two guards who had been manning the gates. He balked as he noticed that they were frantically playing rock-paper-scissors, and when they finally reached a point where there was a winner the loser let out a cry of despair that almost brought the perimeter walls of the yard down.

"Are you alright?" the young demon asked as the loser stomped past him.

"I already told you: get inside you crazy bastard," the guard grumbled back.

"…But why?"

The guard sighed heavily and the younger demon looked up to the sky as a sudden wind picked up above his head. His jaw dropped as he saw a blue-haired girl with enormous pink eyes and a huge grin on her face gliding down towards them on an oar. She was dressed in a bulky pink kimono and was emitting zero demon energy: was she an actual ferry girl?

"Knock, knock!" she said cheerfully, slipping from her oar and landing nimbly in front of them. "I hope I'm not disturbing you, I just came to speak with Hiei."

"This way," the guard grumbled, turning around and trudging towards the fortress entrance.

"Why thank you!" the girl replied, skipping after him.

The young A class trainee followed as well. This girl seemed to actually be a ferry girl, which only left him all the more curious about what was happening. First of all, how had she gotten into demon world? Why was she there? Why was she not scared? And surely the guard had been wrong: surely this pure-hearted, clear-eyed, tall, friendly and angelic representative of spirit world was not actually Hiei's "woman"?

A short walk down into the bowels of the fortress later found all three entering the dark and dingy training room Mukuro reserved for those looking to truly push themselves by both facing countless opponents and enduring the torturous environment of the room. Unsurprisingly, Hiei was in the centre of the room, shirtless, sweating, dirty, a bloody katana in one hand and his other hand clenched in a fist. His blood-red eyes flicked over in their direction, his dark and threatening scowl almost enough to make the young A class demon pass out in fear.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hiei asked them.

"I've got a message for you," the guard answered him.

Hiei turned his head slightly and spat over his shoulder before narrowing his eyes slightly and visibly tightening his grip on his weapon.

"I've warned you before about interrupting me when I'm down here," he growled.

The A class demon fell to his knees involuntarily as fear left his legs unable to support the weight of his body a moment longer.

"This just landed in the yard," the guard said, stepping aside and holding out a hand towards the ferry girl.

"Hi, Hiei!" she said brightly, waving a hand at Hiei.

The young demon watched on intently as Hiei slowly replaced his sword to his sheath. He moved over to a nearby rock and grabbed up a towel, wiping it at his face before marching over to the girl grinning at him endlessly.

"Botan…" he snarled out, sounding and looking as though he was about to eat her.

And a moment later, he practically did. The young A class demon tilted his head and watched on in confused curiosity as Hiei – the heartless man of few words who everyone in Mukuro's territory knew to fear – passionately kissed a ferry girl with enough fervour and noise to make his actions possibly illegal, even by demon world standards.

"Come on kid, it only gets worse from here," the guard muttered, grabbing up the young demon and carrying him from the room.

Left alone, Hiei continued assaulting Botan with a kiss that was making her go weak in his arms. He gripped his hands into the wonderfully smooth and cool silk of her kimono and held her up, torn between stopping to carry her off somewhere and take their little encounter much further and stopping to ask her why she had come to see him. She did sometimes randomly come to him in demon world – though typically they met up at agreed times and locations – and every time she did surprise him with a visit he was always optimistic that he would ask her why she was there and she would simply reply that she wanted sex.

"Oh Hiei," she gasped as he buried his face into her shoulder. "I've missed you."

"I saw you three days ago," he muttered into her skin.

"You just kissed me like you haven't seen me in three decades, don't pretend you didn't miss me too," she replied sulkily. "You don't need to be mister tough guy with me, remember?"

"…Come to my chambers…"

"That's not why I'm here, Hiei."

"Now who's pretending to be something they're not?"

"I'm serious Hiei, Lord Koenma sent me here."

Hiei pulled away from Botan, frowning up at her sceptically, hoping to see that irritating and saucy glint in her eye that would tell him that she was joking again. Sadly he found no trace of it.

"Hn, so what does he want?" he asked moodily.

"He wants us all to meet at Genkai's temple at eight o'clock tonight, he has something very important to tell us," Botan replied. "Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama have all already agreed to go."

"I couldn't care any less about any silly meeting in the human world," he said. "Tell Koenma I'm not at his beck and call when he needs to find a missing fairy flute or whatever other piece of crap he's just noticed missing from spirit world!"

"But Hiei," she said pleadingly. "We need your help!"

"Not interested," he said flatly.

"Are you absolutely sure that you're not interested?" she asked, trying her best to look endearing.

"Absolutely."

"…And there's nothing I can do to change your mind…?"

"That's right."

Botan sighed, one hand slowly moving towards her mouth. Hiei watched her with increasing interest and disbelief as she touched her fingers to her lips in an almost seductive fashion, her eyes looking directly at him.

"Are you sure that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change your mind, Hiei?" she asked slowly.

"I sai…"

Hiei's voice failed him as she slid the tip of one finger into her mouth, encasing it in her lips in a way that made his entire body twitch to watch. She slowly pulled her finger free again before giving him a small smile. He licked his lips and pushed back his hair with one hand, angered that she knew that she could have that effect on him and equally delighted that she understood him so well: though he would never dare admit either to her.

"Hn," he said instead. "Does Koenma know that his favourite ferry girl uses the promise of sexual favours to convince demons to do her bidding?"

"That was very wrong of me, you're quite right, Hiei," she replied. "So I'll just head back to the living world and work with the others on this case, and maybe I'll see you once I'm done? It shouldn't take us longer than three or four weeks to solve, but I'm sure you won't miss me at all. In case you do though, I'll leave you with a little something."

Hiei grinned to himself. He had no intention of running around working for Koenma and this way he got what he wanted anyway: maybe he would not see Botan for a while, but she was at least going to spend a little time with him before she went off to do spirit world's dirty work again. His grin widened as she leaned towards him again, placing a hand on each of his shoulders. She brought her lips towards his and he happily tilted his chin towards her: but the contact he had been expecting never came. He glared at her questioningly but she stayed exactly where she was, her lips almost touching his, the warmth of her breath tickling his lips in a way that was beyond infuriating.

"If you don't come back to the living world with me and help us out, I'm not going to do that thing you like ever again," she whispered.

"What?" he echoed.

"I think you know what I mean, Hiei."

She lightly touched her lips to his and he tried to push against her to complete the kiss but she turned her head from him, sticking her nose up in the air. He growled at her in frustration, his fists clenching at his sides. He could quite easily just push her over and take what he wanted anyway – and she would probably enjoy it even more than he would – but the image of what she had suggested earlier was still playing in his mind.

"Pay me up front and I'll do it," he blurted out.

Botan turned back to him with a grin that made him feel stupid and weak.

"Oh, Hiei!" she said, throwing her arms around him and squeezing him into a hug. "I knew you wouldn't let us down! You're my roasty, toasty, cuddly, wuddly, fuzzy, wuzzy, cutie pie!"

"…Damn it woman…"

* * *

"Oh no!" Keiko cried.

"Hey, what's up?" Yusuke asked her.

"This," she replied, holding up what looked like the shattered remains of a plate.

"It's no big deal," he said with a shrug. "Just be more careful next time, butterfingers!"

"No, Yusuke! This is my make-up bag! Megumi froze it again!"

"What?"

"She likes to play with my make-up, and she's learned that she can freeze things and then drop them to break them open! Look what she's done to my eye pencil!"

Yusuke moved across the room, plucking the object from Keiko's fingers and crossing his eyes to focus on it.

"Gees!" he cried. "It looks like she ate it!"

"She did!" Keiko replied. "That's what the problem is! Once she's done drawing on herself she eats the pencil!"

Yusuke lifted his eyes to Keiko, a stern look appearing on his face.

"You understand now why I was stressing out?" she asked him.

"Yes," he replied seriously. "We need to get that kid away from Kuwabara: she's picking up his bad habits."

Keiko sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Kuwabara always chewed pencils at school," Yusuke added.

"It's not Kuwabara she's copying," Keiko replied. "It's Hiei."

"What?" Yusuke echoed. "Oh come on, Hiei may be weird, but he's not pencil-eating weird!"

"…You mean you don't know what Megumi's favourite game is?"

"…What the hell are you talking about?"

Keiko smiled and moved towards the doorway, beckoning for Yusuke to follow her.

"This way," she said. "I think you'll like this…"

Yusuke followed after her, through the temple to the kitchen. The room was silent but it was not devoid of life: two figures were sat on the wide windowsill, facing each other. One had a bowl of steaming Milo in his hands the other had a kiddie cup of milk. Both had red eyes and both looked more serious than they needed to be. One was dressed in black to match his hair and the other was dressed in turquoise to match her hair. Both wore bandanas and both had black dragons on one arm.

"Holy shi–"

Keiko quickly clapped a hand over Yusuke's mouth before he could curse in front of Megumi. He groaned, pushing her hand away and moving over to the window.

"Hey, doesn't that freak you out, Hiei?" he asked his friend. "The kid is trying to look like you!"

"Hn, and she's got it wrong again," Hiei replied, his eyes still on his niece, who pulled a face of irritation at his words. "Wrong arm, idiot," he added.

She looked down at her arms before lifting her head to glare at him angrily.

"But it's the same arm when she's looking directly at you," Keiko pointed out.

"Don't make excuses for her," Hiei said sternly. "She won't learn."

Yusuke shook his head at Hiei before turning to the little girl opposite him. She was dressed in a miniature version of her mother's kimono, and her silky blue hair was tied up in pigtails on either side of her head. She almost looked cute, but for the white dishcloth she had tied around her forehead, the crudely scribbled dragon she had drawn on her left arm with Keiko's eye pencil and the abundance of black make-up around her mouth where she had eaten the remains of the pencil.

"Weird kid," he concluded. "I guess she takes after you, Hiei. And with Kuwabara around taking care of her, there's no hope of her ever growing up to be normal…"

"Yusuke!" Keiko scolded him.

Yusuke shrugged at her.

"Hey speaking of abnormal, where's Botan and Koenma?" he asked. "They called us here, and now they don't even have the decency to show up on time?"

Hiei raised his eyebrows as he caught Yusuke watching him expectantly.

"Are you asking me?" he asked. "Hn, how would I know? You're the spirit detective, spirit world affairs are your business."

"Ex-spirit detective," Yusuke reminded him. "And I thought you might know a little bit about spirit world affairs, since you're having one."

Hiei slowly narrowed his eyes threateningly but Yusuke was unaffected, grinning back at him and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Come on Hiei!" he said. "You must know where Botan went!"

"Maybe I do," Hiei replied, turning his attention back to his niece.

"So then tell me already!" Yusuke demanded.

"Maybe you don't want to know," Hiei quietly replied.

"Aw, Hiei!" Yusuke moaned. "Don't be all cryptic with me!"

"You won't like it," Hiei warned him.

Yusuke sighed, before dragging one hand slowly down his face in exasperation.

"Yo!"

Yusuke spun around at the sound of a voice behind him, the sight of Koenma standing in the doorway in his adult form, grinning far too enthusiastically only making him even more infuriated.

"Alright Junior, what's going on?" he demanded. "Why did you bring us here?"

Koenma's grin faded and he gave Yusuke an almost hurt look.

"It's nice to see you again too, Yusuke Urameshi," he grumbled.

"Just tell me what piece of crap you lost or broke this time!" Yusuke snapped back at him. "And maybe this time you could also tell us something useful, like exactly how long we have to find it or fix it and exactly what damage it might do if we don't!"

"I'm afraid it's a little bit more complicated than that," Koenma replied with a sigh. "You better gather the others together, I don't want to have to explain this more than once.

Yusuke sneered at him, one hand curling into a fist at his side.

"I'll get the others into the front room," Keiko said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Keiko!" Koenma called after her as she left the room.

Yusuke continued glowering at Koenma, watching him turn and leave until he was out of sight before turning back to Hiei.

"You better move, Hiei," he said. "I don't like the sound of this, and he won't tell us unless we're all in one room."

"I already know what's happening, Botan told me everything," Hiei flatly replied.

"Well unless you want to share what Botan told you, you have to move," Yusuke said.

"Hn."

Hiei slid off the windowsill, ignoring Megumi as she reached out for him to pick her up and take her with him.

"Do you remember Sensui?" he asked Yusuke.

"How could I forget?" Yusuke replied.

"This is almost the same thing," Hiei said.

Yusuke stiffened as Hiei smirked knowingly before darting from the room.

* * *

"Isn't this just super?" Botan said cheerfully as she steered her oar towards Genkai's temple. "I'm so excited!"

"I can tell," her passenger replied.

"Since Genkai passed away the team has been lacking some female muscle," Botan added. "It's wonderful that we've got you now. Sometimes I'm the only girl with the team on a mission, but with you there I'll at least have some pleasant girly company!"

"And you're sure Urameshi doesn't eat people?"

"Absolutely! Whatever even gave you that idea in the first place?"

"Well, that one time he came to our house, some demons came for him and they were talking about eating people. My mom said Urameshi thought it was okay to eat people. She said she heard him say that people are just food."

"…I can't imagine Yusuke saying something like that, are you sure that he wasn't just joking? He has quite a cruel sense of humour sometimes…"

"I dunno, I wasn't there, that's just what my mom said."

"I see…"

Botan started to descend as they neared the temple gate, and she felt her passenger shuffle about slightly.

"Are you nervous about meeting the team?" she asked.

"No!"

"…Okay…"

"But… I already met Urameshi, but what about the others? Are any of them cute?"

Botan hesitated to answer, a flicker of jealous possession passing over her involuntarily. She turned her head to look at the girl sat on the back of her oar – in the same position Kuwabara rode, she noted – and she ran her eyes over her.

"Aren't you a little too young to be worrying about boys?" Botan asked her.

The girl gave her a look that was somewhere between pity and confusion, which did nothing to reassure Botan's concerns. The very last thing she needed was the new spirit detective forming a crush on Hiei. It was not that she was worried about Hiei returning the sentiment, more that it would be incredibly awkward for them to function as a team.

Botan landed by the temple doors and together she and her passenger leapt down and started into the temple. Both stopped abruptly however as Yusuke's voice yelled out from a room nearby.

"Damnit, Koenma!" he said. "That's not a real mission, that's just babysitting! You called us all away from our lives for this?"

Botan sighed before continuing on, entering the room the others were gathered in.

"Now, Yusuke," she said in an admonishing tone. "Do I need to remind you that you were only 14 when you became spirit detective?"

"That's different!" Yusuke instantly replied. "First of all, I was 14, and second of all, I trained under Genkai, and last of all, I was one of the good guys!"

Koenma sighed and rolled his eyes.

"First of all Yusuke," he said. "Kaisei Sanada is 14, second of all, Kaisei has trained under Kuroko Sato, who trained under Genkai once too, and last of all, we have Fubuki Sanada on our side to help."

Yusuke pulled a face at Koenma, apparently still far from convinced.

"I met Kuroko Sato's brats," he said. "They were smaller than Hiei, and about as mature as Yukina's baby!"

"Yusuke, that was five years ago," Koenma bluntly replied. "Kaisei is now 14 – the same age you were when you became spirit detective – and his sister Fubuki is 13… And that makes her our youngest ever spirit detective."

"Ta-da!" Botan said, stepping aside and holding out her hands towards the girl she had just escorted to Genkai's temple.

Fubuki politely bowed to the others in greeting.

"Babysitting," Hiei grumbled.

"Exactly!" Yusuke cried.

"Yusuke Urameshi!" Botan snapped at him. "You shouldn't underestimate Fubuki! She's actually very strong, I'll have you know!"

"You have to say that, you're her assistant and publicist," Yusuke sarcastically replied. "And if she really is that strong, why can't she just go to demon world herself and get her brother back?"

"It's more complicated than that, Yusuke!" Koenma yelled, clearly at the end of his patience. "Kaisei willingly went to demon world after befriending some demons who had been regularly visiting this realm. Kaisei is as powerful as you were during the early rounds of the dark tournament, and I don't think I need to tell you that, teamed with the wrong sort of demon company, he could quickly become a force to be reckoned with here in the living world – he could turn into another Sensui! We have to get him back, and I'm not going to send a young human to demon world on her own! You're going with her, and you're not coming back until you're found her brother, got it?"

"You know I seem to remember you firing me and telling me it was permanent."

"Alright, let's all try to remain calm," Kurama said, stepping between Yusuke and Koenma. "The most important thing to consider here is that Enki does not condone demons kidnapping humans and taking them to demon world, so all three worlds are in agreement that this is a violation of law and trust, and as most citizens of demon world hold Enki in high regard, anyone who comes across Kaisei will either attempt to rescue him or else report it to the relevant authorities: the border patrol. I suggest we contact the border patrol as a first port of call to find out if any such reports have been logged, and also to ask for their assistance looking for Kaisei."

The others all nodded in agreement except for Fubuki, who was apparently too lost in gazing dreamily at Kurama.

"Hi," she said to him. "What's your name?"

"Hello," Kurama replied, nodding his head at her. "My name's Kurama. We should probably all introduce ourselves to Fubuki for–"

"Oh, I don't care about any of them," Fubuki cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Koenma's an idiot, Urameshi's got a bad attitude and Botan's okay, I guess."

Kurama started to say something but stopped short as Yusuke snorted unsubtly at his side. Kurama's large green eyes moved to his friend questioningly.

"Everywhere we go, it's always the same," Kuwabara grumbled. "All the girls love pretty boy Kurama best of all!"

Kurama turned his head sharply, his hair almost slapping Yusuke over the face.

"Kuwabara, she is 13 years old," he said quietly.

"It doesn't matter, they all love you best," Kuwabara replied with a shrug.

"It does matter," Kurama flatly replied. "Because as a human, I am 21."

Yusuke snorted again and Kurama turned back to him.

"Let's just get this over with already," Hiei suggested. "I'll talk to the border patrol guards."

"Right, I'll talk to Enki, let him know exactly what's going on and what we're up to, so that nobody gets suspicious," Yusuke offered.

"I'll come with you," Kuwabara offered. "I want to meet Enki."

"…Fine…" Yusuke reluctantly agreed.

"I'll go with Hiei," Botan replied.

"I'll start asking some of my contacts if they know anything," Kurama said.

"I'll go with you, Kurama!" Fubuki instantly responded.

Yusuke started sniggering into his hands and soon Kuwabara was snorting in amusement too. Kurama tried to ignore them, turning his attention to Koenma instead.

"I appreciate that you want to recruit a new spirit detective," he said. "But perhaps sending her to demon world is a little too demanding for her first mission."

"I don't mind!" Fubuki said eagerly. "I'm really strong. I like guys who are stronger than me."

Koenma started to grin a little too widely for Kurama's liking, and so he turned to Botan.

"Botan, perhaps you should take Fubuki with you?" he suggested.

"Oh, that would be lovely," Botan replied. "But I can only take one passenger on my oar, and it's probably better that we work in pairs. I'll go with Hiei and you can take Fubuki with you."

"…Botan…" Kurama growled. "I intend to do a lot of running. She might slow me down."

"Carry her on your back," Hiei suggested.

Koenma joined Yusuke and Kuwabara in their laughter and Botan began to giggle.

"We need to approach this logically," Kurama insisted.

"Yeah, logically!" Fubuki agreed. "There are six of us, and we should work in three pairs of two! Urameshi is going with that ugly guy, Botan is going with that short guy and I'll go with you, Kurama!"

Botan began laughing openly and even Hiei allowed himself to chuckle at Kurama's predicament.

"You should…" Kurama began.

He slowly looked around the others before sighing quietly.

"Alright Fubuki, you can come with me," he agreed.

Kurama turned and started to leave the room, with the young spirit detective closely at his side.

"Well at least we don't have to worry about babysitting the girl," Yusuke said to the others once Kurama was gone.

"But we still have to babysit the boy," Hiei pointed out.

"It's no big deal, he's just a kid," Yusuke replied with a shrug. "Him and his sister tried to both fight me at once that time I went to their house, and although they were tougher than most kids, I could still hold them both back with just one finger."

"That was five years ago, Yusuke," Koenma reminded him. "And, just like you, those kids have developed their strength a lot since then. There's a reason Kaisei was sought out and taken to demon world. Don't underestimate his strength or his likelihood of refusing to come back here. And remember, you can't just go in there, spirit gun blazing: we need him back here alive and as unhurt as possible."

"One punch will be more than enough to knock him out, and that won't do too much damage," Yusuke said.

Koenma pulled a face at Yusuke, but his actions were ignored.

"C'mon, Kuwabara," Yusuke said, walking from the room. "You better not slow me down."

Kuwabara hurried after him, leaving Koenma with Hiei and Botan. He turned to them with a tired smile that soon faded when he looked at Hiei.

"Would it be stupid of me to ask if you two could make sure Kaisei doesn't get badly hurt in all of this?" he asked.

"Don't worry, Sir!" Botan replied cheerfully. "As mission manager, I will not allow any harm to befall Kaisei, you have my word!"

Koenma narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at her, apparently less than convinced by her reply.

"We won't intentionally kill him," Hiei said.

"I don't want you to unintentionally kill him either," Koenma flatly answered him.

"Sometimes there's collateral damage in a battle," Hiei said.

Botan laughed nervously and shook her head.

"Don't worry Lord Koenma!" she said. "We'll have Kaisei Sanada back here safe and sound before you can say–"

"Let's go, we're wasting time," Hiei cut her off.

Botan waved at Koenma before allowing Hiei to take her hand and pull her from the room. Koenma leaned out into the hallway to watch them leave, unsure if he was glad of the silence once they were gone or not. He turned around, looking back towards the kitchen, and saw Megumi was still on the windowsill where Hiei had left her. Deciding that he had time to spare until the team reported back to him, Koenma walked into the kitchen and sat up onto the windowsill beside her. He then transformed back into his more typical toddler form, making himself almost as short as she was.

"Well Megumi, it looks like it's just you and me for now," he said.

The little ice maiden tilted her head slightly as though considering what Koenma had just said. She looked quite ridiculous, he thought, with black make-up smudged around her mouth and arm, a fake bandana around her head and her hair in pigtails.

"You're a very serious little girl, aren't you?" he commented. "…Maybe a bit too much like uncle Hiei…"

Koenma screamed and barely ducked out of harm's way as Megumi punched the fist of her dragon-decorated arm at his face.

* * *

Hiei's eyes wandered to one side, his eyebrows slowly drawing together into a frown. In the distance he could see the border patrol road, and for some reason he was suddenly moving away from it. He watched it diminish out of sight on the horizon before slowly moving his eyes to his other side, looking down at Botan. She was facing forwards, and her body language suggested that she was determined to get to her destination: even though she had just clearly turned away from their actual goal.

"Where are you taking us?" he asked her. "I know you know this is the wrong direction."

She said nothing, but he distinctly felt her speeding up, and as they rounded a rocky cliff, an open plain of okunen trees suddenly came into view.

"…Botan?" Hiei muttered.

"Yusuke isn't going anywhere fast with Kuwabara slowing him down, and Kurama won't get much work done with Fubuki fawning over him," she replied without turning around. "And it's not like Kaisei is actually in danger: he's formed an alliance and voluntarily come to this realm with the demons he met in the living world."

"…That's not very diligent of you. As "mission manager" shouldn't you be leading us into this crap?"

Botan turned her head and smiled sweetly over her shoulder at him.

"Well if you're eager to get on with the mission I'll certainly turn around," she said.

Hiei thinned his eyes but said nothing, and soon Botan was gliding down towards a familiar treetop with a waterfall. Part of him wanted to just get on with rescuing the brat so that he could get the stupid mission over and done with, but mostly he just wanted to follow through with what was being offered to him right then.

"We're not alone up here," he said.

"We're not?"

Botan began looking about herself, apparently forgetting to lower her eyes as she failed to notice the small demon approaching them until he was standing between them.

"Hey, you guys!"

Hiei's lip curled involuntarily at the sight of that annoying kid with the yo-yos, who, judging by the grin on his face, thought that they were paying him a friendly visit.

"Wanna see a neat new trick I learned?" the kid asked.

"Sure!" Botan said. "But don't point those things at me please. Face that way and show us."

Hiei stepped back, trying to keep the curiosity from his face as Botan took hold of the boy's shoulders and strategically faced him in a specific direction. She looked as though she was planning something, though he could not even begin to guess what.

"See I get two yo-yos like this…" the kid began, lining up his weapons of choice. "And then I–ah!"

Hiei grunted in shock as Botan swung her oar around in the air, swatting the kid in the back and sending him flying off the edge of the tree. She smiled and shrugged as she caught the look of horrified disbelief he was giving her and then planted the handle of her oar into the ground.

"Don't worry, the fall won't hurt him," she said. "And besides, the others won't notice if we're five minutes late."

Hiei slowly moved over to her oar, setting the blade alight.

"…Five minutes?" he asked quietly, turning to her with a sly grin.

"Or… Twenty-five minutes…" she said with a shrug.

"Twenty-five minutes?" he asked.

"Well mister smarty-pants, we would waste a lot less time if you would stop talking!"

Hiei contained a smile.

"Aren't there laws against a ferry girl talking that way?" he asked.

"Probably," she replied. "I suppose a good ferry girl would care more about completing this case as soon as possible, and I do care about the case, but… It doesn't seem as urgent as it ought to. I used to take cases more seriously than this. It's only recently I've changed… Maybe you were my downfall, Hiei."

"Hn."

Hiei rolled his eyes, walking over to Botan.

"Then I suppose before we start on another ridiculous job for spirit world, I should be your downfall once again right now…" he said.

"Okay dokay!" Botan agreed, throwing her arms around him.

Hiei growled in frustration, but the feeling of Botan's fingers in his hair soon made the sound fade from his throat.

"I love you, Hiei," she whispered into his ear.

He moved his arms around her, pulling her closer to him.

"I love you, Botan," he muttered into her shoulder.

 **The End (at last)**


End file.
